Harriet Potter and the Four Witches
by YinYangWriter
Summary: Harriet's new neighbors are an interesting bunch and they don't like how she's been treated. They take matters into their own hands and Harriet begins to see beyond the tiny bubble that is the life she's been forced to live in. Post Goblet of Fire, fem!Harry, character bashing, and OCs.
1. Chapter 1

**Happy Easter, everyone! I've been wanting to do something new for 2019 after all my old stories were complete, but I couldn't hold on to this one until that time. I've never written a _Harry Potter_ story for Fan Fiction before, so this is entirely new territory for me. I was inspired by the stories where Harry smartens up/gets help, fem!Harry stories, and Dumbledore/Weasley/Granger bashing stories. Yes, this is going to be a fem!Harry story and yes, this is going to have character bashing in it. Also, there are going to be original characters. I mostly wrote this out of wanting to try something new and also as a cathartic exercise, which is surprisingly working. Originally this was meant to be a one-shot, but has since taken on a life of its own. I think I do have an ending in sight for it, but that could easily change.**

**The reason why I am posting this on Easter is because it is the perfect time for an egg hunt. In this chapter there are nine references that can be from movies, television, gaming, fashion, music, or pop culture that are stuck in here that really don't have much to do with the plot, but at the same time it doesn't necessarily mean they'll be easy to find. If you find all nine, the prize at the end is knowing that you did well and possibly know me a bit too well.**

**The usual disclaimer: I do not own _Harry Potter _or any of the movies, games, music, or products that may be lurking in this chapter, but the original characters are mine.**

**Happy hunting!**

* * *

Harriet Potter was not having a good summer. After her friends had promised to write her about what was happening, she hadn't heard anything from them other than there was nothing to tell her and Hermione added that she should work on her summer homework. Harriet had written back a few times to try to find out what was happening in the Wizarding World, adding that her homework was complete. Still she received the same response. She even wrote to Dumbledore to ask when she could go to The Burrow to stay with the Weasleys and his response was that she was safer with her relatives and not to send letters as they could be easily tracked by Death Eaters.

Her relatives put her to work. Harriet was once again expected to cook and clean the house and tend the garden to maintain the Dursleys' image of a perfect normal family with the exception of their delinquent niece who spurned their kind hearts. Harriet took every opportunity to listen in on the news and go through discarded newspapers, trying to find anything that would suggest what Voldemort was up to. Vernon caught her once under the open window listening in on the news and demanded why a freak would care about what was happening to hard-working normal people.

Then there were the nightmares. Harriet didn't sleep much because she constantly relived the night in the graveyard when she closed her eyes. If it wasn't the memory of the graveyard, it was her drowning during the second task or being eaten or incinerated during the first task. More than once she woke up screaming in the middle of the night, causing Vernon to storm into her room and shout at her for waking them up in the middle of the night.

Now, because she had woken up the Dursleys in the middle of the night because of a nightmare, Harriet was sent to work outside in the garden all day to prepare for the local gardening competition Petunia had entered in. Harriet was expected to have the beds weeded and the roses pruned before Vernon got home. Normally it wouldn't have been so bad if the new neighbors didn't have the best garden on Privet Drive already.

New neighbors. That was not something Harriet had expected when she arrived back at the Dursleys'. Vernon blamed her for the neighbors, accusing her of bringing more freakishness into their lives. Harriet thought they might have been a wizarding family, but the thought was quickly dashed when she saw them. Four women had moved into Number Two, and while eccentric, they didn't act like they were witches from what Harriet saw. Their clothes were modern, luxury brand names even, and their outfits were well put together, not the mess that Harriet witnessed at the World Cup. Each had their own individual style and all four were gorgeous. Harriet also saw one of the women on the cordless phone walking around the house speaking at an acceptable volume level, clearly knowing how to use it. She never saw a wand in their hands, a post owl, or anything indicating they were magical or even knew about magic.

Petunia did not like any of the women. She would spy on them from the backyard, listening to their conversations, especially when Phone Lady was talking to whoever was on the phone. She called them tarts based on the risqué nature of the phone calls she eavesdropped upon, trying to start a scandal amongst the neighborhood that they were loose women whose money was ill-gotten from what she could twist from their conversations. Rumors spread like wildfire amongst the housewives of Privet Drive thanks to Petunia. It didn't seem to bother the women of Number Two. They went about their lives without a care for the gossip.

Vernon had loudly voiced his opinion about what he thought about the new neighbors. Like Petunia, he called them tarts, but also foreigners who think they don't have to work hard like honest people. And while he spouted off his narrow-minded rhetoric, it didn't escape Harriet's notice that he leered after them whenever they came or left.

When they weren't beating up kids around the neighborhood, Dudley and his gang hung out in the alley behind Number Two to try to peep in on the women. Harriet would hear them bragging to each other about how they saw one of them undressed. If they really were peeping, it was only a matter of time before they got caught.

A door opened and closed. Harriet thought it was Petunia coming out to shriek at her for some reason or other. Then she heard Phone Lady's voice with her American accent on the other side of the fence.

"It's only a temporary situation," Phone Lady was saying. "We'll probably be here until next year. If you want us to visit, or you want me to visit, all you have to do is ask."

There was a pause.

"Old?" Phone Lady asked in a teasing tone. "You don't look your age at all!"

There was another pause before Phone Lady burst out in laughter.

"You know what I mean. But seriously, you should indulge yourself more often. You look like you're not a day over thirty-five when you're relaxed, thirty when you really loosen up. Good bottle of wine, home cooked dinner, chocolate dipped berries for dessert, a beautiful woman attending to you for the evening, two if Ursula is bored. Well, I can make a cheesecake instead if you wanted one."

Harriet had stopped what she was doing to listen to Phone Lady. Petunia had said her conversations were quite suggestive, but from what Harriet was hearing, it was only allusion to the risqué. Phone Lady could very well be strictly literal. It was all open to interpretation.

"I can speak how I want," Phone Lady went on. "I am in my own yard, not talking loudly or making a scene. The bitch next door has nothing better to do but to use her unnaturally long neck to look over the fence and twist my private calls into neighborhood gossip."

Harriet had to cover her mouth to hold in her snickers as Phone Lady talked about Petunia.

"Oh, the whole family's despicable!" she went on. "They look like some experiment gone wrong, all of them, like someone tried to create chimeras using humans. The husband is severely overweight and has a short temper. Honestly, I'm waiting for him to keel over from a stroke. And I wouldn't be surprised if Margarita didn't lift a finger to help him. She's noticed how he watches us every time we leave the house. Her jogging route goes passed their house and she's seen him on the porch acting like he was getting the paper. We all know he's waiting on her."

So the women of Number Two knew about Vernon's new habit of taking so long to get the newspaper every morning.

"And like I said, the wife, Petunia – the name's just insulting to the flowers – is horse-faced with a neck like a giraffe. She tries to make herself look like a perfect housewife in those floral print dresses. Bony thin, too. Walks out with her husband every morning to kiss him goodbye as he goes to work. It's like a scene out of a movie, and not a good one either, so fake, nothing going on in that bedroom I assure you. There's only one way he's doing it, if they can even find it."

Harriet choked, sick to her stomach. Phone Lady was actually talking about Vernon and Petunia like that? She really didn't need to think about what her aunt and uncle's love life was like.

"And the son! A pig both in form and in mind! He's as big as his father. The only exercise he gets is by shoveling food into his maul. A bully, too. Gets his little gang of budding criminals to do all the hard work for him. He'll punch someone, but only when his goons are holding them for him. To see him try to run is just a vulgar sight. Of course his parents think he's a little angel who's a growing boy. Oh, he's growing, all right. Right out of the seams of his clothes. They spoil him and he throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way. He's old enough to know better, but they've clearly failed as parents. He won't function in society, even if something changes soon. Personally, I'm surprised child services haven't showed up yet. No, I think something's going on there. Oh, did I tell you Forsythia caught them peeking over the garden wall and trying to see into the house? They had binoculars. Of course they didn't see anything of importance. We have curtains. And use them."

Harriet's eyes widened. She had thought Dudley had been telling stories about peeping in on the women.

"And then there's the niece."

Harriet pressed her ear to the fence to hear what Phone Lady had to say about her.

"One of the first things we were told when we moved in here was that the Dursleys' niece was a problem child who was always causing trouble. Her name is Harriet Potter. Mm-hmm, yeah. They say they send her to some boarding school called St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Youths. A load of crap, the place doesn't exist. Petunia goes around saying that she's an ungrateful brat. More than once I heard them yelling at her for something or other and how this is how she repays them for their kindness and how they could have sent her to an orphanage. An orphanage would have been better. That brings me back to the child services thing. Clearly someone has their hands in it."

This was a pleasant surprise. The women at Number Two didn't believe the stories the Dursleys spouted off about her and weren't fooled in the least by the stories that Dudley was a perfect little angel.

"Oh, who knows, he's probably at some pub in London getting hammered," Phone Lady said. "Ursula saw him last week. Came home complaining about the condition of the hotel room he was staying in."

It sounded like their conversation had changed topic.

A bony hand grabbed Harriet's shoulder and yanked her back from the fence.

"What are you doing lazing about?" shrieked Petunia. "Shirking on your chores! Spying on the neighbors!"

"Excuse me."

Harriet and Petunia looked up to see Phone Lady's face. Her pale face was done up in purple makeup and her brown hair hung in waves.

"I'm sorry for my delinquent niece," Petunia said with false sweetness. "We try so hard to help her, but it seems she's a lost cause."

Phone Lady glanced at Harriet and then at Petunia. "She wasn't the problem. I am trying to have a phone conversation. Could you keep your voice at an acceptable volume? Any louder and the police could be called for disturbing the peace."

"Disturbing the peace? Me?" Petunia screeched.

"Yes. Goodbye." Phone Lady disappeared and they could hear her chatting away on the phone once again.

Petunia dragged Harriet into the house. "Ungrateful freak! Making us look bad in front of the new neighbor. After we took you in and fed you and clothed you. Wait until your uncle comes home."

Harriet was locked in her room after that.

The next day, Petunia locked her out of the house. Harriet decided to go the rundown playground after her gardening was finished and sat on the only intact swing. She hadn't slept much last night because of the dreams again. Vernon had banged on her door and threatened to throw her in the cupboard under the stairs for the noise she was making. She closed her eyes for a moment. It was getting late, the sun was setting, and she wondered if she would be allowed in the house to sleep.

"Hey, Potter!"

Harriet opened her eyes and looked up. Dudley and his gang of friends was standing in front of her.

"Oh, hey, Big D," she said. "Out beating up a ten year old?"

"He deserved it," Dudley said. "He cheeked me."

"Yes, five on one. Very fair," she remarked sarcastically.

"You're one to talk," said Dudley. "At least I don't moan in my sleep. Scared of your own pillow?"

Dudley's gang laughed.

"'He's going to kill Cedric!'" Dudley mocked. "Who's Cedric? Your boyfriend?"

"Shut up, Dudley!" snapped Harriet. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"'Mum, he's going to kill me! Mum, help me, he's going to kill me!'" Dudley continued to mock. "Where's your mum, Potter? Is she dead?"

Dudley's gang continued to laugh.

Harriet reached for her wand in her back pocket and started to stand up.

"Hey!" someone barked.

Harriet saw one of the women from Number Two walking quickly across the grass at them. It was the woman who tended to run every morning. She had an athletic build and stood tall. Her chestnut brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing bright blue running shorts and an amber colored vest worn open over her orange trimmed gray sports bra. Around her waist was a green running pack and she was carrying a matching green water bottle in her hand.

"What's going on?" the woman demanded.

"We're just talking," Dudley said, trying to look innocent.

"The budding criminal thug squad just talking to a girl? Yeah, right. All of you, home now."

"Or what?" Dudley said belligerently. "We weren't doing anything wrong."

"Assault, for starters," the woman stated. "You admitted it yourself. 'He deserved it. He cheeked me.' Isn't that what you said? What are you parents going to say when the police get involved? Because I will go to them first. I won't lose sleep over putting a black mark on your record. Good luck getting into schools with that. I'm sure your parents will love that."

Some of Dudley's gang looked worried.

"Maybe we should go, Big D," said Piers.

"I would listen to your friend," the woman said to Dudley. "Clearly he has intelligence and a sense of self-preservation."

Suddenly the temperature plummeted and it got darker. Several of the streetlights went out for no reason.

Everyone looked around, confused.

"Go home," the woman ordered them. "Now!"

Dudley's gang ran off, leaving Harriet, Dudley, and the woman.

Harriet felt the happiness drain from her and began to hear mother's screams for her life. She realized what was happening. There was a Dementor nearby.

"What are you doing?" Dudley shouted at Harriet.

The woman put her water bottle in the holster on her running pack. "You two, go home!"

Dudley ignored the woman. Instead he continued to yell at Harriet. "You're not allow to use it! You'll get in trouble!"

Harriet took out her wand. She was then sent sprawling to the ground, her cheek throbbing. Dudley had punched her, causing her to drop her wand and lose her glasses.

"I can't see!" Dudley panicked. "I've gone blind!"

Harriet patted the ground for her glasses. She found them and put them on time to see Dudley running away, straight towards a Dementor.

"Dudley, you're running right at it!" Harriet screamed.

The ragged robed ghostly form swooped down on Dudley and grabbed him with its scabby hands.

Harriet searched for her wand.

"Be gone!" Harriet heard the woman yell.

A ball of light hit the Dementor holding Dudley and it dropped him. The Dementor let out an unearthly shriek and caught fire, turning to ash a second later.

Harriet turned to the woman to see she was poised with her fist pulled back, her hand glowing.

"Duck!" the woman yelled at Harriet.

Harriet dropped to the ground and the woman threw a punch. The light shot off her hand and hit a second Dementor that was creeping up on Harriet. It was incinerated like the first.

Warmth returned and the streetlights flickered back on.

The woman walked over to Harriet and held out her hand. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Harriet replied, allowing her to be pulled to her feet. "What was that?"

"A banishing spell," the woman replied. "I owe John for teaching us that one. Now let's go before more decide to show up. And get your wand."

Harriet found her wand and put it in her pocket.

The woman shook her head at Harriet. She walked over to the unmoving form of Dudley. With her foot, she shoved him over to his back.

"My condolences," the woman said.

Harriet began to panic.

"His soul wasn't sucked out." She bent down and hoisted Dudley up. "Get up!"

Dudley moaned and staggered to his feet, immediately wanting to slump down again.

The woman gave him a shake before grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. She slapped him across the face. "Wake up! I'm not carrying you!" With another shake, she began pushing Dudley in the direction of Privet Drive.

Harriet was quick to follow.

"Miss, um," Harriet started to say.

"Doctor would be the correct term, but don't bother with the pleasantries," said the woman. "I'm Margarita."

"Are you a witch, Margarita?" Harriet asked.

"You can call me that," said Margarita.

"But you didn't use a wand," said Harriet.

"So? It doesn't mean I can't use magic," Margarita said.

"Isn't difficult to use wandless magic?" asked Harriet. "Only powerful wizards and witches can use it."

Margarita snorted. "Anyone can do it. You just have to apply yourself, which is something the general wizarding public knows absolutely nothing about."

By the time they reached Number Four, Margarita and Harriet were dragging Dudley between them. Harriet opened the door to the house and went in first. Margarita followed, dropping Dudley in the entryway.

The next few minutes were filled with yelling and shrieking from Vernon and Petunia, demanding to know what happened to their son and blaming Harriet for his state. They carried Dudley into the living room where he curled up in a chair with a vacant stare and a continuous whimper. Petunia fretted over the boy, trying to get him to talk.

"Happy are we now?" Vernon asked Harriet. "You've finally done it. You've finally driven him loopy."

Margarita turned to Harriet. "Go next door and tell Ophelia to get off the phone and get my kit."

Harriet nodded and started for the door.

"And stay out!" Vernon yelled after her. "I won't put up with your nonsense any longer!"

"My kit, Harriet!" Margarita shouted over Vernon. "Quickly, please!"

Harriet ran out the front door and over to Number Two. She rang the doorbell and knocked on the door.

The door opened to reveal a tall woman with high cheekbones and perfectly straight black hair. Harriet had recognized her as the woman who loved the color black and liked to wear different hats and veils. At the moment the woman was wearing only black silk bathrobe that showed off her hourglass figure. She looked very surprised to see Harriet standing on the porch.

"Yes?" the woman drawled.

"Margarita sent me," Harriet quickly explained. "She said, 'tell Ophelia to get off the phone and get my kit.'"

The woman looked over her shoulder. "Ophelia! Margarita needs her kit!"

"Tell her to get it herself!" came the response.

"She sent someone to get it!" the woman shouted back. "Say good night to Jekyll and Hyde! You can flirt with them later!"

"Why don't you get it?"

"In a bathrobe?" The woman sighed. "Hold on."

Harriet waited impatiently. The woman returned to the door wearing a long black coat and carrying a duffle bag.

"Lead the way," she said to Harriet, pulling the door shut behind her.

The two went back over to Number Four.

"Margarita!" the woman sang, entering the house like she owned it.

"In here, Ursula!" Margarita called from the living room.

Harriet and the woman, apparently Ursula, walked in to see the Dursleys looking fearfully at Margarita. Dudley now had a bucket on his lap and was looking decidedly green. Margarita took the duffle bag from Ursula without a word.

"You're welcome," Ursula said sarcastically.

Margarita took a small bottle of something out of the bag and shoved it under Dudley's nose. The reaction was immediate. Dudley jumped before retching into the bucket.

"Now we're getting somewhere," muttered Margarita.

"Chocolate helps," Harriet said. "It's what my professor gave us."

"Yes, it does," Ursula said, patting Harriet on the head. "But let's have Dr. Margarita work in peace."

Harriet ducked away from the hand with a scowl.

A screech owl came flying in the open window and dropped a letter in front of Harriet before flying out again.

Harriet opened the letter.

_Dear Miss Potter,_

_We have received intelligence that you performed the Patronus Charm at twenty-three minutes past nine this evening in a Muggle-inhabited area and in the presence of a Muggle._

_The severity of this breach of the Decree of the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery has resulted in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy your wand._

_As you have already received an official warning for a previous offence under Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy, we regret to inform you that your presence is required at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at 9 a.m. on the twelfth of August._

_Hoping you are well,_

_Yours sincerely,_

_Mafalda Hopkirk_

_Improper Use of Magic Office Ministry of Magic_

Ursula plucked the letter from Harriet's hands. "What is this garbage?" she asked, reading it over. "Margarita, what happened?"

"Dementors," Margarita replied curtly. "The British are dumb enough to still use the demons. Pointless to use them."

"They are the guards of Azkaban," said Harriet.

"This is Surrey, not Azkaban," Margarita pointed out. "So what are they doing here?"

"Mm, possibly setting up Miss Potter," said Ursula. "They did just inform her of her expulsion."

Margarita turned sharply to them. "On what grounds?"

"For performing a Patronus Charm according to this," replied Ursula.

"She couldn't have," said Margarita. "I was the only one to cast any magic and I used one of the spells John taught us."

"Seems like you owe him a gift basket," Ursula quipped.

"You're freaks, too?" Vernon thundered, turning purple.

Margarita and Ursula glared at him.

"Keep in mind who is treating your son at the moment, Mr. Dursley," Margarita said darkly.

A second owl flew into the house and landed near Harriet. It held out its leg, offering her the letter it was carrying. It flew away after Harriet removed the letter.

_Harriet – _

_Dumbledore's just arrived at the Ministry and he's trying to sort it all out. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR AUNT AND UNCLE'S HOUSE. DO NOT DO ANY MORE MAGIC. DO NOT SURRENDER YOUR WAND._

_Arthur Weasley_

"More lovely news?" Ursula asked, trying to see Harriet's most recent letter.

Harriet clutched the letter, more like a note, to her chest to keep Ursula from taking it.

Margarita checked Dudley's pupils with a little light. "It shouldn't surprise me they won't bother doing an investigation. The Ministry is lazy, corrupt, and bigoted. They probably don't even see the need to check on their so-called savior."

"But the last time I had accidental magic happened, they sent a bunch of people to check on me," Harriet told them. "They were all in a panic because they thought Sirius Black was trying to kill me. Now Voldemort is back, I get attacked, and they just tell me I'm expelled, no questions asked."

"Yes, but then they weren't making you out as an attention seeking brat who's crying wolf," said Ursula.

"What?" Harriet asked.

"You haven't been reading the paper?" Ursula asked.

"I have barely heard from my friends," said Harriet. "I've written them, but they write back saying everything is fine and not to send letters because they could be intercepted. They never even sent my birthday presents. And now I'm being told to stay here and not do any more magic. Not like I used any earlier."

"Add fickle to your list, Margarita," Ursula commented.

"Noted," Margarita said flatly. "Okay, boy. You in there?"

Dudley moaned.

"Diddy-dums?" Petunia called.

"Cold," murmured Dudley.

"Yeah, you're going to be," said Margarita. "At least he's talking now. Think you're going to be sick again?"

Dudley went back to staring into space.

Margarita turned to Petunia. "Physically, he'll be fine in a few hours. Don't be surprised if he has nightmares. Once he gets his wits about him that he won't choke, give him some chocolate. I've found that the dark kind with chili pepper in it works best. That'll counter the chill he's feeling. He got lucky."

A third owl, another screech owl, flew in and dropped its envelope in front of Harriet before flying away.

"More owls!" Vernon bellowed.

Harriet opened this letter, aware that Ursula was looking over her shoulder.

_Dear Miss Potter,_

_Further to our letter of approximately twenty-two minutes ago, the Ministry of Magic has revised its decision to destroy your wand forthwith. You may retain your wand until your disciplinary hearing on the twelfth of August, at which time an official decision will be taken._

_Following discussions with the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Ministry has agreed that the question of your expulsion will be decided at that time. You should therefore consider yourself suspended from school pending further enquires._

_With best wishes,_

_Yours sincerely,_

_Mafalda Hopkirk_

_Improper Use of Magic_

_Ministry of Magic_

Ursula burst out in sarcastic laughter. "How nice of them. They are giving you the privilege to defend yourself before they snap your wand. They are probably hoping you'll incriminate yourself in the death of the boy who died in the tournament."

"I didn't kill Cedric!" Harriet screamed. "It was Voldemort. He killed Cedric!"

Ursula leaned down and put a finger in Harriet's face. "That is the exact reaction they want from you. And you'll make it so easy for them."

A fourth owl came soaring through the window and offered the letter tied to its leg to Harriet.

"For God's sake!" Vernon shouted. "I will not have owls here, I will not tolerate it, I tell you!"

"Oh, do shut up," Ursula said.

Harriet recognized the handwriting as Sirius's.

_Arthur's just told us what happened. Don't leave the house again, whatever you do._

Harriet ground her teeth. She hadn't done anything to begin with and everyone was treating her like she had, telling her what to do, without asking for her side of what happened. She was becoming very frustrated with it all.

"I want you out of this house this instant!" Vernon yelled at Harriet, his face turning increasingly purple.

"I'm being told to stay here," Harriet said hollowly, holding up her letters from Mr. Weasley and Sirius.

"I don't care!" Vernon stomped over to Harriet. "You're more trouble than you're worth. He can't pay us enough to make us keep you any longer!"

As Vernon reached out to grab Harriet, Ursula stepped between them and slapped the large man across the face. Vernon howled and doubled over, holding his face.

"Vernon!" screeched Petunia, jumping up to help her husband.

Vernon looked at his hands and saw specks of blood on them. There were four long scratches running along his fat cheek.

Petunia glared at Ursula. "You tramp!"

"What the hell is going on in here?" Phone Lady was standing in the doorway in a purple mid-length dress with a thick black belt. Next to her was a petite woman with long, curly golden yellow hair wearing an oversized green T-shirt and boldly patterned, brightly colored drawstring shorts. "Ursula, really, you have much better tastes than that."

"Oh, please, like I would give the walrus the time of day," Ursula said, looking down her nose at Vernon.

The blonde woman went over to Harriet. Harriet had only said hello to her a few times when they were both out tending their own gardens. "Come on," she said quietly. "You can stay at our house."

"I can't," said Harriet.

"We're not leaving you here with an abusive family," said the blonde woman.

Harriet shook her head. "You don't understand. I can't leave. They told me to stay here."

"Who told you?" Phone Lady asked.

"My friends," Harriet started to say.

"And who are your friends to tell you to stay in an abusive household?" Phone Lady interrupted. "They are your friends, not your parents."

"But my godfather told me to stay, too," Harriet tried to argue.

"Then why aren't you with him?" Phone Lady asked. "Clearly he doesn't care about you. Get your stuff. You're staying with us until further notice. Forsythia, help her pack."

A fifth owl flew in, but dropped its letter in front of Petunia. It was in a red envelope. Petunia reached down and picked it up, seeing her name on it.

"You can open it if you like," Harriet told her. "We'll all hear it says anyway. It's a Howler."

"Petunia, put it down," said Vernon. "It could be dangerous."

"It's addressed to me," said Petunia. "Why would they address it to me?"

The envelope began to smoke before bursting into flames. Petunia screamed and dropped it.

An awful voice echoed throughout the room. "Remember my last, Petunia."

Petunia paled dramatically. "The girl stays," she said in a whisper.

"With you child abusers? I don't think so!" Phone Lady yelled.

"Ophelia," the blonde tried to console.

"Don't 'Ophelia' me, Forsythia! It's bad enough they treat her like a slave - don't give me that look, Dursley, we're not blind like the rest of this cookie cutter neighborhood. It's another thing that people who do not have the authority to make decisions about her life are telling her she must stay here. I have had enough of this stupidity. Harriet, get your stuff and take it over to our house. If your friends have a problem with that, they can take it up with me."

The blonde, Forsythia, gave Harriet's arm a small tug. "Best to go before she starts throwing spells."

Harriet and Forsythia went up to Harriet's room. Harriet quickly packed her trunk and got Hedwig's cage. The snowy owl was out hunting and wouldn't be back for a while. She turned and saw Forsythia looking at the cat flap and locks on her door.

"Do you have everything?" Forsythia asked, noticing that Harriet was looking at her.

Ursula appeared in the doorway and looked at the room. "Oh."

"Don't say anything, Ursula," said Forsythia.

Ursula made a face like she wanted to say something but didn't.

"What's going on downstairs?" Forsythia asked.

"Margarita's packing up her kit," said Ursula. "And Ophelia is having words with the Dursleys. We better hurry up and leave before she starts cursing them. Frankly, I might even join her."

The three walked down the stairs to find Ophelia and Margarita standing by the front door. Both looked very angry about something.

"Do you have everything?" Ophelia asked Harriet.

Harriet nodded.

"Let's go." Ophelia stood aside for Harriet to walk out, glaring at the Dursleys.

Harriet was escorted across to Number Two. Across the street, she noticed old Mrs. Figg staring at them with a look akin to horror. She quickly scurried back to her house. Harriet frowned. Margarita put her hand on Harriet's shoulder and guided her to the front door.

"Welcome to Number Two," Ursula announced dramatically. "Possibly the only place in Little Whinging where individuality can be expressed without criticism."

"Not all criticism," Ophelia said. "You can be quite vicious."

"So can you," Ursula shot back. She took off her coat to reveal that she had only her underclothes on beneath it. She hung it on the coat rack before sashaying up the stairs. "I'm going to put on something more comfortable."

Margarita turned to Harriet. "Have you eaten anything?"

Harriet shook her head.

"Leave your stuff here. We'll get you some food," said Margarita, leading Harriet to the kitchen.

After Harriet ate some oatmeal Margarita quickly made up for her, she sat at the table looking at the women. Ursula had returned halfway through Harriet's meal dressed in a charcoal gray gown.

"I'm sure you have questions," Ophelia stated.

"Who are you?" Harriet asked.

"Well, I'm Ophelia, and that's Ursula, Margarita, and Forsythia."

Harriet shook her head. "That's not what I meant. Are you witches? Why are you here on Privet Drive?"

"She's ignorant, Ophelia, not stupid," said Margarita. "And I did tell her she can call us that."

"We just don't consider ourselves the average witches," Forsythia said. "We don't agree with the status quo of the wizarding communities. We believe that we need to live with the non-magi, not isolate ourselves because we're extraordinary. By going into hiding and believing non-magi are inferior, the communities have created a rift that could take years to fix. The longer they separate themselves from the rest of the world, the greater the risk of exposing themselves."

"And with cameras everywhere these days and the internet, it's not a matter of modifying a few memories anymore," said Ophelia.

Harriet thought about that. She only knew about new things from Dudley, who bragged about what his parents bought him. Other than that, she was usually isolated, staying at either Hogwarts or locked away at the Dursleys.

"As for what we are doing on Privet Drive, we were looking for you," Ophelia said with a smile.

"Me?" asked Harriet. "Why?"

"Like Forsythia said, we aren't your average witches," Ophelia continued. "We believe in coexisting with non-magi, which means helping them when the situation calls for it. And sometimes when the situation calls for it, we have to use magic from the shadows."

"Which brings us to our latest mission," said Ursula. "You."

"Me?"

"You are Harriet Potter, savior of the wizarding world, are you not?" Ursula mocked. "Survived the Killing Curse with only a scar? Defeated Voldemort before you were potty trained?"

Harriet opened her mouth to argue.

"Ursula, she doesn't understand your humor," Margarita said before Harriet could start yelling.

Ophelia giggled. "Don't take it personally, Harriet. None of us can stand stupidity, though Forsythia has an amazing amount of patience when it comes to it. The general magical world has lauded your survival as a show of your power. They forget you were a toddler who didn't know any spells. The only one alive that probably knows exactly what happened that night is Voldemort himself and I doubt he'll be telling anyone."

"And chances are that your survival and his downfall were because of something your parents did, not you," Ursula said. "There are a few powerful rituals out there that require a sacrifice. If that's the case, your parents not only risked their lives, but prison if they lived. The British outlaw everything they don't like."

"The general wizarding populace has this mold of you, that you are supposed to know how their world works," said Ophelia. "That you have to stay in their so-called 'Light' and denounce all who are 'Dark'. You look like your parents, so you must act like your parents. You have to go to Hogwarts. You have to be in Gryffindor. You have to be brave, daring, and 'Light' or you're a disappointment. Your father was a Quidditch player, so you must be one as well. Your mother was a first generation witch, so it's okay if you don't excel at everything magical. You were hidden from the magical world, so you must have had some sort of special training."

Harriet was becoming angry. "I never had any special training, except for third year with Professor Lupin for the Patronus Charm! And don't talk about my mother that way! She was a great witch!"

"Was she?" asked Ophelia. "Do you know that for sure?"

"She was a great witch," Harriet insisted.

"This is how the world is for you, Harriet," Ophelia said gently, no hint of mocking in her voice. "People expect you to take their word for everything and never question it. This is how they mold and shape you into what they want. But what do you want? You should ask questions. You should look at the world in your own way, not just theirs. You should have your own personality, not the one they pick out for you. In the end, it's your life, not theirs. And if they don't like it, they can go shit on a cat."

Harriet inadvertently burst out in laughter and was quickly joined by the women.

"So why am I your mission?" Harriet asked, recovering from her laughing fit.

"Because you need help," answered Ophelia. "Voldemort is back, as much as your government wants to deny it. Making you seem like you're unstable will make you uncreditable and the community will ostracize you. And when they do learn that Voldemort, they'll want you to fight him. They'll hide in their homes while you fight for them and demonize you for doing things they don't like. And that's where we come in. We've dealt with things that go bump in the night before. We're willing to fight Voldemort and can teach you how to fight if the need arises."

"With my luck, I'll need it," Harriet grumbled. "But why help me?"

"Who else is going to do it?" Ursula asked.

Harriet thought about it for a moment. No one had talked to her all summer and now they were telling her what to do, not even asking her for her side of the story or even if she was all right.

"Okay," said Harriet.

The rest of the evening was figuring out sleeping arrangements. Harriet insisted she could sleep on the sofa in the living room, but the women weren't having it. They decided that Harriet would bunk with Forsythia as she was the one least likely to wake Harriet up with her schedule.

Harriet's trunk was moved into Forsythia's room and a spare mattress was brought out of storage. Upon seeing what Harriet had in her trunk in ways of clothing, Ursula launched into a tirade about the Dursleys and forcing Harriet to dress like their pig of a son. This resulted in both Ursula and Ophelia deeming that Harriet needed a proper wardrobe and they would be taking her shopping after breakfast. Margarita and Forsythia agreed to come along too, if only to stop Ophelia and Ursula from sneaking over to Number Four and cursing the Dursleys in some fashion. Harriet was given a set of pajamas that belonged to Forsythia, which fit better than Dudley's castoffs.

Breakfast was very different in Number Two's house than what Harriet was used to. To begin, each woman got their own breakfast. Breakfast foods were also quite different, the women choosing fresh fruits, yogurts, toast smeared with cream cheese or avocado spread, and scrambled eggs with herbs compared to the heavy, grease laden breakfasts Harriet had made in the past or the tiny portions of grapefruit that she was forced to eat because of Dudley's diet.

Another thing was how noisy it was at the table. Harriet was used to Vernon bellowing for his breakfast or Dudley whining about wanting to watch his programs or Petunia's screeches at her to not burn the bacon. But this was a bit different. Ophelia and Ursula were debating where they were going to go shopping. Harriet was shocked at some of the insults they exchanged with each other. She looked to Margarita and Forsythia, but saw they weren't bothered by it at all. Apparently it was something that happened all the time. The only thing Ophelia and Ursula decided on was that they were going to shop in London. Harriet heard them throwing around names like Chanel, Fendi, Gucci, Prada, and Versace before Margarita called out that Harriet was a teenager and didn't need luxury brand names. Ophelia and Ursula looked appalled at her statement.

Forsythia leaned over to Harriet. "They love their luxury. Don't be surprised to walk out of a store with a dress that costs more than the mortgage on this house. Margarita and I will be with you to talk them out of it when that happens."

After breakfast came getting ready to go shopping. Forsythia loaned Harriet an aqua top, magenta shorts, and a pair of sandals. Forsythia herself wore a top and skirt set with a bold pink, white, and bright blue floral design and rose gold colored sandals, her golden hair half pulled up in a bejeweled clip. Margarita walked out of her room wearing a green tank top and taupe cargo pants, carrying a black hooded vest in one hand and a pair of black training gloves in the other. She had her hair pulled up into a ponytail like last night. Ursula was wearing a long black dress with the corset laced up tightly to show off her figure. She had a fascinator hat of mesh and black feathers clipped in her hair, a veil of netting covering her face. Her black eyeliner was graphic and her lips were painted red wine red. Ophelia also chose a black dress, hers being a leather mini dress held up with thin straps. Her eyes were smoked out in purple and her lips were simply glossed. Her skin looked like it was glowing from the warm gold pigment she had dusted on her face, shoulders, and chest.

Margarita put her sneakers on and grabbed her wallet from the table by the front door before heading out to start the car. Ophelia and Ursula were still bickering on where to shop as they put on their black heels and packed their purses with lipsticks and compacts. Harriet watched them, feeling nervous about the impending outing. Beside her was Forsythia. The blonde woman had obviously noticed Harriet's discomfort and put herself in the position as a guide to help her understand what was going on. Forsythia picked up her own purse and walked out to the car with Harriet, Ophelia and Ursula following behind them.

"Good morning, Mrs. Dursley!" Ophelia called loudly so the surrounding houses would hear. "And isn't it a lovely morning?"

Petunia was on the front porch getting the paper. She looked like she wanted to make a nasty remark at Ophelia, but had to stop herself as the neighbors leaving for work were listening. Instead, she forced a clearly fake smile on her face. Ophelia was obviously taking pleasure in putting Petunia on the spot as they all got into the black Mercedes. Her greeting had also drawn the neighbors' attention to the group and they could clearly see that Harriet was going on an outing with the four eccentric women. Associating with them would tarnish the Dursleys' reputation, at least in the Dursleys' eyes.

Harriet sat in the back of the car with Forsythia and Ophelia. The latter pulled a bright pink compact out of her purse and a makeup brush and dusted more of the gold pigment along her décolletage.

"Care for some?" Ophelia asked Harriet.

Harriet look suspiciously at the makeup brush.

"Oh, it's highlighter, not arsenic," said Ophelia. "A little won't hurt. Glasses off. I'll do your cheeks."

Harriet took off her glasses and closed her eyes. She felt Ophelia sweeping the brush across her cheekbones.

"Ooh, this looks nice," Ophelia said. "Courtesy of a rising star and the golden king it was named after. What do you think?"

Harriet opened her eyes and looked in the compact's mirror. Her cheeks now had a slight golden sheen to them. She wasn't sure how she felt about it.

"Looks good," Ursula said from the front seat. "We'll have to get her some makeup while were out."

"Did you ever agree on where we're shopping?" Forsythia asked.

Margarita answered before Ophelia and Ursula started arguing again. "I'm driving, I'm picking."

They drove into London and arrived at a large indoor shopping mall. Ophelia and Ursula approved of Margarita's choice and tried to run off with Harriet immediately. Margarita and Forsythia had to stop them from dragging Harriet into the high-end stores first, saying that she didn't need to drop a working man's paycheck on a dress.

Harriet was overwhelmed with shopping. They took her to several affordable stores for blouses, pants, skirts, dresses, and shoes. While the women did most of the choosing of what Harriet would try on, they did ask her opinion if she liked certain colors or prints or styles. Harriet was so used to Dudley's castoffs and her school uniform, she wasn't sure how to answer. She didn't want to appear difficult, but she didn't want the women to spend all their money on her. The women seemed to understand this as well. Most of what they ended up purchasing were solids or subtle prints, suitable for everyday wear and most occasions.

The cosmetics store was frightening. After they had gotten everyday clothes for Harriet, Ophelia and Ursula insisted on taking her to one of the cosmetics stores. Harriet had seen Petunia's makeup drawer before and she never heard of half the products she was seeing. Ophelia and Ursula went in separate directions with Margarita and Forsythia chasing after them to keep them from going overboard. This left a very confused Harriet standing with an employee. The employee was helpful in explaining different products and helped to shade match Harriet with a tinted moisturizer and a concealer for when she needed it.

After leaving the cosmetics store with a bag full of skin care products, they stopped for food at one of the restaurants. Ophelia and Ursula were still talking about makeup over their sandwiches, deciding what to give Harriet from their makeup drawers as they had a few duplicates of colors and shades that were unopened. As they were figuring out what store to visit next, Margarita brought up the fact that Harriet had nothing to wear to her upcoming court hearing.

"That's right," said Ophelia. "We didn't find out what all that mess was about last night. Care to inform us?"

Margarita summed it up quickly. "Dementors attacked Harriet and the pig. I banished them. Harriet here didn't use any magic at all. But the Ministry, in all its wisdom, has decided to charge her with using magic 'in the presence of a Muggle'. Not only that, they accused her of using the Patronus Charm."

"A Patronus?" asked Forsythia. "That is an advanced spell."

"I can do it," said Harriet. "Mine's a stag."

The four women blinked.

"You can make a corporal one?" asked Ophelia. "Maybe there is hope for this backwater society."

"Doubtful," said Ursula. "They expelled her and then said they would give her a trial. It was a second thought to give her one. They want her gone. Part of me wants her to plead guilty so they throw her out completely."

Harriet turned to Ursula, horrified. "But I won't be able to magic without a wand!"

"Bullshit, you won't!" Ursula countered. "We don't use wands and we do just fine."

"I don't even know if you are really witches," Harriet said.

"Then what did I do last night?" asked Margarita.

"I don't know," said Harriet. "But the Patronus is the only way to drive away a Dementor. You can't destroy them!"

Ophelia leaned onto the table. "Would you like proof?"

Harriet nodded. "I want to see real spells," she insisted.

"In front of non-magi? The thing you are in trouble for?" Ophelia laughed. "Very well."

Ophelia took a napkin and allowed her hand to hover over it. Slowly she moved it and words began to appear in her handwriting on the napkin.

_Will this do? Or do you think this is a parlor trick?_

Harriet was unsure.

Ophelia continued. _Or would you like me to tell about the lady with three kids at the counter that are yelling and carrying on?_

Harriet looked at the counter and saw a lady trying to pay the cashier while three young children were whining over something.

Forsythia had a small seed in her hand that was sprouting and growing around her finger. Ursula had changed her napkin several different colors. Margarita's plastic fork had twisted itself into a bow on her palm.

"I believe you," Harriet said quietly.

Ophelia leaned back and took out her compact again to check her makeup. "Glad you do. Keep an open mind with us, honey. I'm sure we do plenty of things that wizards and non-magi think are impossible." She snapped her compact shut.

After they finished their lunches, they went to a store to get Harriet an outfit for court. They found a black pant suit for Harriet that she could easily wear. Then it was on to the high-end stores. Ophelia and Ursula insisted on get Harriet a purse. They ended up getting her a classic flap purse and a large shopping tote.

With all their purchases in hand, they loaded up the back of the car and started back to Surrey.

"Am I the only one who noticed we were being followed all day?" Margarita asked as she drove.

"Hardly," Ophelia said. "Why do you think I was checking my makeup so much?"

"Because you're obsessed with your looks," Ursula stated.

Harriet's eyes widened. "We were being followed?"

"They weren't very discreet," said Ursula. "I'm surprised you didn't notice them, Harriet."

"Do you think they were Death Eaters?" Harriet asked.

"No," answered Ophelia. "They would have attacked us in the mall."

"Don't worry, Harriet," said Forsythia. "You're safe with us."

Once they were back at Number Two, they sorted out their purchases and threw away Dudley's castoffs. Harriet was putting her new clothes away when she heard tapping on the bedroom window. A snowy owl was perched on the windowsill.

Harriet quickly opened the window. "About time," she snapped, letting Hedwig in. She rushed to find some paper and a pen.

Forsythia stood in the doorway. "Harriet?"

Harriet stopped. "Oh, this is Hedwig. I need her to deliver some letters. I want to know what's going on. None of my friends have sent anything other than to tell me that everything is fine and that I should focus on my homework. Not like they read my responses or they would know my homework is actually done. Now there are Dementors showing up in Little Whinging and they're still not telling me anything except to sit tight and not use magic!"

Forsythia looked on calmly as Harriet ranted. "Come downstairs. I think we need to have a talk. And bring Hedwig."

Harriet went downstairs while Forsythia gathered everyone else in the kitchen. Ophelia and Ursula gushed over the snowy owl that was sitting on Harriet's shoulder. Hedwig appreciated the praise, but wouldn't be tempted over to the two women.

"I think it's time you told us about your Hogwarts years," Forsythia said to Harriet. "We only know what we have heard through the newspaper and word of mouth. And with people who can't decide to worship you or demonize you, I'm pretty sure a lot of what we heard was not true."

And so Harriet told them. She started with just before her first year when she was told about magic from Hagrid up until the graveyard and Voldemort. With each year, each adventure, each story, the women's faces twisted in surprise, disbelief, anger, and suspicion. At the end, Ursula announced that she needed a drink and got out a bottle of wine and some glasses.

Ophelia threw a hand up. "I knew these people were stupid, but I wasn't expecting them to be this stupid. But really, what should I expect from this backwater society? They agree that being pureblooded puts you on top, no matter how mentally stunted one is. Progress is such a dirty word to them. Heaven forbid an outsider comes up with a better mousetrap. How unorthodox!" she finished with dramatic sarcasm. She reached over and grabbed the glass of wine Ursula had just poured for herself.

"It's a miracle that you are alive," Margarita pointed out to Harriet. "I will be giving you a full checkup."

"I'm fine," Harriet insisted.

"No sense in telling her that," said Forsythia. "She'll just hold you down and do it anyway. But Margarita is right. You are very fortunate to be alive."

"Enough, Forsythia," Ursula cut in, pouring another glass of wine. "The girl probably hears that all the time. It reminds her that her parents are dead and she's alive."

Forsythia glared at Ursula.

"And this Dumbledore," Ursula went on.

"Oh, he better pray I don't get a hold of him," Ophelia cut in. "Just drops a toddler on the doorstep in November with only a blanket and a note and just walks off. Doesn't bother ringing the bell, doesn't bother checking up on her, nothing. And then when she tells him she doesn't want to go back to them, he just pats her on the head and says all families have their problems and they love you very much. They couldn't possibly mistreat you in anyway. Every child needs to be punished when they're naughty. Yeah, sure, being locked in a cupboard with no food or water is a perfectly acceptable punishment because she couldn't get the ridiculously long list of chores done in time."

Ursula looked at Harriet. "We really need to discuss your time at Hogwarts."

"I know, I should have told a professor or done something different," Harriet started.

"Oh, yes, you should have," Ophelia interrupted. "But I doubt it would have done you any good." She took a long sip of wine.

"There are so many things wrong with what you told us," Ursula said.

"I'm telling the truth!" Harriet insisted.

"We know," Forsythia soothed. "She means some things don't add up to us."

"Exactly," said Ursula. "Starting with how the groundskeeper of your school showed up to give you your letter."

The four women began listing off all they saw wrong with what Harriet told them. It should have been a professor to visit Harriet and explain Hogwarts to her and take her to Diagon Alley. They found it awfully convenient that a pureblood wizarding family with children already in Hogwarts would go running through the train station proclaiming loudly what platform they needed to be on. And then there was the influencing of Harriet's choice of house and the blatant favoritism of professors. Ophelia pointed out how stupid the professors were for creating the gauntlet that three first years could get passed.

Moving on to her second year, they questioned what Harriet and Ron were thinking when they took the flying car. They should have sat and waited or sent Hedwig with a note telling them they had missed the train. The women found fault in how the school treated Harriet like a leper when they learned she was a Parselmouth and decided she was the heir to Slytherin. On top of that, having to fight the basilisk and dealing with the cursed diary that the professors should have dealt with. However, they did somewhat applaud Harriet for getting a professor, even though said professor was a complete fraud and a twit.

Third year was when they said it was becoming clear that people were intentionally keeping Harriet in the dark. They led her to believe it was none of her business that a potential mass murderer was trying to kill her. Granted, it turned out Sirius Black was not a killer and that one of the people he supposedly murdered set him up. There was also the bit about a werewolf running around putting students in danger, but the four women glossed over it for the time being. They added that Hermione clearly strove to be the teachers' pet, tattling on Harriet about the Firebolt. Margarita said that she would never get very far believing in only library books and authority figures and if she had done her research, she would have known that a Firebolt couldn't be cursed. True, Sirius Black had sent Harriet the broom, but at the time none of them knew that at the time and it was plausible that one of the teachers had given it to her anonymously. Instead, Hermione went behind Harriet's back when she didn't get the response from her she wanted. While it may have been true that her intentions were good, she had betrayed Harriet's trust. Forsythia said it was a nice thing for Harriet to forgive her, but she shouldn't forget where Hermione's loyalties were.

It was fourth year that cemented the notion that there was something more going on in the women's minds. A simple age line would indeed keep the underage from putting a name into a cup, but it wouldn't stop someone of age putting a name of an underage student in the goblet, especially if the name had been torn off from a homework assignment where it would be said student's handwriting and magical signature. Then there was the fact that Barty Crouch Jr. was able to impersonate Alastor Moody all year and no one noticed the switch, even the headmaster who was supposed to be a good friend. All four of them agreed that Ron was a jealous brat who desired fame and glory for himself and was only Harriet's friend so he could say he knew the famous Harriet Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived. Again, it was nice that Harriet forgave him, but she shouldn't forget how he acted. They also said that Hermione could be very narrow-minded. While trying to help the house-elves was a good thing, she was going about it all wrong by forcing her beliefs on them and dismissing what the house-elves wanted. Overall, they suggested that Harriet find some better friends.

"It wasn't all bad," Harriet argued weakly.

"Oh, you mean there wasn't a time where you didn't have to worry about someone or something causing you bodily harm?" Ophelia sniped.

Harriet withered under her dark look.

Ursula spoke up. "Would you ever like to go back to Hogwarts?"

"I have to," Harriet insisted.

"Do you?" Ursula asked. "What if you found somewhere else to learn magic, a place where you're not under a microscope? A place where your friends don't use you for their personal gain? What if you could be you and not this creation the world has cooked up for you? Would you take it?"

"Any school would treat me the same," Harriet said glumly.

"Who said anything about a school?" Ursula purred. "What if we taught you?"

Harriet gasped. "You would do that? Why?"

"My dear, sweet child, it's what we do," Ursula said. "To help unfortunate folk, like yourself. A poor soul with no one else to turn to." She smiled dangerously.

"Don't go scaring her," Forsythia admonished.

Ursula shrugged and took a sip of wine.

The blonde turned to Harriet. "You don't have to make any decisions now. Let's get you through your court appearance first and then you can make a choice."

"But in the meantime, we can teach you other things," said Ophelia, bouncing with excitement. "I can't wait to get you in front of my vanity. Oh, we're going to have so much fun!"

"Yours!" Ursula yelled. "What about mine?"

Ophelia gave Ursula a dark look. "We want her to look great, not like she's in a casket."

Ursula gasped. "Rather that than a tramp!"

"Excuse me? You have a problem with my makeup, you Morticia reject?" Ophelia challenged.

"At least I'm not the one who looks like a dead Bond girl," Ursula argued.

"I have taste."

"In what?"

Margarita decided to step in. "Girls, you're both pretty."

Ophelia and Ursula stopped arguing and glared at Margarita, who ignored their dirty looks.

Forsythia stood up. "It's late. We should go to bed."

The next morning, Harriet was rudely awakened by Ophelia dragging her out of bed and sitting her in front of a large vanity and shoving a fruit smoothie into her hand. A few minutes later, Ursula came in and the two women started having a lively conversation. When Harriet was a little more awake, she was able to see all of the makeup products in front of her. Already Ophelia and Ursula were grabbing bottles and brushes and starting their makeup routine. Harriet looked at the chaos with trepidation. Ophelia let her panic for a few moments before telling her why she had dragged her into her bedroom. The next few hours were filled with playing with different colors and finishes on Harriet.

Harriet found that she liked makeup, especially concealer. With it, she could cover her famous scar and walk out in the world without people staring at it. Her second favorite product was lipstick, since it took the attention away from her forehead and ugly glasses.

Their makeup session was interrupted by Margarita, who wanted to give Harriet a checkup. After being taken over to her room, Margarita gave Harriet a physical using both magic and non-magical means. Harriet hadn't wanted to show them the scars she had, but a no nonsense look from Margarita was all it took for the younger girl to strip down to her underclothes. Margarita reiterated to Harriet that it was a miracle that she was alive and despite the mediocre treatment she received from Madam Pomfrey, she was in no danger of past injuries having ill effects. Except for her famous scar. Margarita didn't like what she was feeling from it. However, there was nothing she could do about it at the time and it didn't appear dangerous at the moment. Harriet heard her mutter something about getting in touch with the mysterious John.

After lunch, Ursula asked to see Harriet's school books and her homework so she could look it over. It turned into a two hour study session on the different applications of spells, punctuated by commentary from Ursula of how the teachers didn't show diversity in ways a spell could be applied. Ophelia, who had taken over the living room and was on and off the phone, said while it was a good starting point, knowing how to turn buttons into beetles and charming a pineapple to tap dance wouldn't help one in life. Looking over her work, Ursula thought Harriet should be learning more practical skills to prepare her for life after school. This left Harriet hoping she would start learning these skills this year, if she wasn't expelled from Hogwarts.

After the study session, Harriet went out to join Forsythia in the garden to see if she needed help. They both weeded the garden, Forsythia telling Harriet the uses of different household herbs. Harriet especially enjoyed the story of how a group of thieves used herbs to keep themselves from catching plague as they looted the houses of the plague victims. They worked until sundown when the streetlights started to come on. It was then that Forsythia leaned over and whispered to Harriet that they were being watched and that the house had been watched since Harriet came over. Harriet glanced around, but Forsythia assured her if they were attacked, Forsythia would strike back while Harriet would run inside. They finished bagging up the weeds to be discarded. Forsythia went inside for a moment to get one more bag to finish the last of their piles while Harriet waited for her.

"Harriet!" Mrs. Figg came running up to her and grabbed her hands, starting to pull her to the edge of the property. "What are you doing here? You were told to stay with your relatives and not leave."

"What?" Harriet yanked her hands out of Mrs. Figg's. "How would you know that?"

"Dumbledore was so upset when I told him you weren't with your aunt and uncle," Mrs. Figg went on as if Harriet hadn't said anything, grabbing her hands again. "We were supposed to keep you from doing magic at all costs. The useless skiving sneak thief! I don't know why Dumbledore had him watching you."

Harriet drew back. "Dumbledore's been having me followed?" she asked slowly.

"Of course he has," Mrs. Figg said impatiently. "Did you expect him to let you wander around on your own after what happened in June? They told me you were intelligent, girl."

"Why didn't you ever tell me you're a witch?" demanded Harriet.

"I'm a squib," Mrs. Figg told her. "And Dumbledore's orders. I was only to keep an eye on you, but not tell you anything. You were too young. Now come on. They'll be here any minute."

"Who will?" Harriet asked.

"Yes. Who will?" Ophelia asked from the porch. The four women were watching Mrs. Figg with hostile expressions.

"Harriet," Forsythia summoned, stepping off the porch with her hand out.

Mrs. Figg grabbed Harriet's arm. "You have no right keeping her here."

Ursula raised a thin eyebrow. "Keeping her here? We weren't forcing her to stay."

"She is supposed to be with her relatives," Mrs. Figg said.

"She was not staying another minute in that hellhole!" snarled Ophelia.

Mrs. Figg flinched back before saying, "You have no say in where she goes."

"And you do?" Ophelia snapped back. "You, the crazy cat woman from down the road? What authority to do have to make decisions in Harriet's life? Hmm? None, I expect."

"Dumbledore told me to watch her," Mrs. Figg said, her voice quivering. "And he told her to stay with her relatives."

"And who is this Dumbledore?" Ophelia went on. "Is he Harriet's relative? Her legal guardian? He is the headmaster of the school she attends. What right does he have to make decisions for her without her knowledge that have nothing to do with her education?"

Eight or nine loud cracks startled them all. A second later, all the streetlights started to go out one by one. Mrs. Figg lost her grip on Harriet's arm and Harriet quickly ran to Forsythia. The blonde ushered her up the steps and Margarita shoved Harriet behind her. In the twilight, a motley group of people marched across the street.

"What's going on here?" one of them demanded in a low, growling voice.

Harriet recognized the voice. "Professor Moody?" she asked uncertainly.

"I don't know about 'Professor'. Never got around to much teaching, did I?" the voice growled back. "Get down here, we want to see you properly."

Harriet stepped around Margarita. The athletic woman put a hand on her shoulder.

"Act smart," Margarita muttered out of the side of her mouth. "We know you are."

"It's all right, Harriet," a slightly hoarse voice called. "We've come to take you away."

Harriet gasped. She hadn't heard that voice in over a year. "Professor Lupin."

"Why are we all standing in the dark?" an unfamiliar woman's voice asked from the group.

Ophelia barked a laugh. "Like you're coming in here? Turn the streetlights back on if you want to see."

There was a loud click and the streetlights turned back on. At the edge of the lawn stood a group of wizards, some Harriet recognized. Remus Lupin, while still young, looked sick and tired with a few more gray hairs than Harriet remembered.

"Oooh, she looks like you said she would," said the youngest, a witch with short, spikey that was an electric shade of purple.

"I see what you mean, Remus," said a bald black wizard with a slow, deep voice. "She looks exactly like James."

"Except the eyes," said a wheezy-voiced, silver-haired wizard. "Those are Lily's eyes."

Harriet frowned a little. That was always what people told her she looked like, her father with her mother's eyes, nothing else.

Mad-Eye Moody, with his grizzled appearance and mismatched eyes, squinted at Harriet. "Are you quite sure it's her, Lupin? We don't want to bring back a Death Eater impersonating her. We ought to ask her something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?"

"Harriet, what form does your Patronus take?" Lupin asked.

"A stag," Harriet answered.

"That's her, Mad-Eye," said Lupin. "It's okay, Harriet. We will need to leave here shortly. Go pack your trunk."

Ursula sniffed. "And what if she doesn't want to? Are you going to kidnap her like the daffy bat tried to do?"

"They won't let Harriet leave!" Mrs. Figg screeched.

"Quiet, woman!" snarled Moody. "You'll attract the Muggles!"

"Oh, let them see," said Ophelia.

Moody growled at the four women, wand in hand. "And who are you?"

"Hmm? Us? Doing a better job as guards than you morons," Ophelia replied. "We actually care about Harriet's living situation. Unlike her 'loving' relatives, we feed and clothe her and not with table scraps and rags. We pay attention to her like a person, not an object to be left on shelf and forgotten for, ooh, more than a month and don't boss her around, expecting her to be an obedient dog and do it without objection or question." She looked pointedly at them.

Ursula turned to Harriet. "Do you want to go with them? It's your choice."

Harriet thought for a moment. "I'll go. Maybe I get some answers as to what is going on."

"Okay, Harriet." Ophelia addressed the group of wizards. "She said she will go with you. We will allow you into the house. However, you will not leave the entryway. Understood?"

The group gave her blank looks or in Moody's case, a glare.

"Am I understood?" Ophelia repeated slowly.

They nodded.

Ophelia rolled her eyes as she went back into the house with the others. "Idiots."

The wizards filed into the house. Mrs. Figg was sent scurrying home by a dark look from Ophelia telling her she was not invited.

Forsythia went upstairs with Harriet to help her pack. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Not really," Harriet replied, putting her new clothes into her trunk. "I just hope I can get some answers as to what is going on. I mean, I'm not ungrateful to you for taking me in, but I barely know you."

"And you don't know if you can trust us fully," Forsythia finished. "You just know we probably won't kill you in your sleep."

Harriet looked at her sheepishly.

Forsythia went to her vanity and took something out of one of the drawers. She turned to Harriet with a notebook. "This is a linked journal. When you write in it, your message will appear in three other journals. Ophelia, Ursula, and Margarita have them. I want you to take my journal with you. If you need help, you can write to us and tell us where you are. Okay?"

Harriet took the journal. It looked like a normal journal with a bright floral cover. "Okay."

They finished packing her trunk and Forsythia helped her carry it downstairs.

Margarita and Ophelia were standing with the group of wizards. Moody was scowling at the two women and the young witch with the purple hair was glaring at Ophelia. Ophelia was sneering back at the young witch. Everyone else was looking at Ophelia and Margarita with suspicion. Ursula was nowhere in sight.

Hearing movement on the stairs, everyone looked up.

"Oh, there you are," Ophelia said, an edge in her voice. "A few minutes sooner and you would have gotten a front row seat to how dense wizards of this country are."

"You didn't need to almost break my nose," the young witch groused.

Ophelia turned to her. "What part of 'You will not leave the entryway' did you not understand? I thought I was speaking English, like the rest of you. Maybe I should have enunciated my words more. Or perhaps it was the lack of British accent. It also could be that you think yourself above me and think you can do whatever you like, whenever you like, regardless of whose house you are in. If that is the case, you are very rude. And honestly, I don't know why I'm wasting my breath. Judging by your vacant expression, you haven't the slightest idea of what I am saying. Maybe I should use baby talk, then the widdle witch would know what I'm tawking about. Maybe even get a cookie if she listens."

The young witch's hair color turned bright red and she puffed up indignantly, opening her mouth to say something.

"Nothing to say? Good." Ophelia turned to Moody and Lupin. "Let the grown-ups speak."

The young witch closed her mouth with an audible click.

"Now see here," one of the wizards cut in.

Ophelia whirled on him. "No, you 'see here'. You are arrogant and clearly possess no manners. We invited you and we can kick you out. So remember your place."

"Let's be civilized," Lupin gently pleaded.

"This is civilized," Margarita retorted. "Tread carefully."

Lupin turned to Harriet.

"Where are we going?" Harriet asked him. "The Burrow?"

"No, not the Burrow." Lupin motioned her over. "Too risky. We've set up headquarters somewhere undetectable. It's taken a while." He pointed to Moody. "Harriet, this is Alastor Moody."

"Yes, I know," Harriet said, a little uncomfortable being introduced to someone she thought she had known for almost a year.

"And this is Nymphadora," Lupin continued, but was interrupted by a snort from Ophelia and the young witch yelling at him.

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" she snapped with a shudder. "It's Tonks."

"Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only," Lupin finished. "And this is Kingsley Shacklebolt, Elphias Doge, Dedalus Diggle."

An excited wizard dropped his top hat and squeaked, "We met before."

"Emmaline Vance, Sturgis Pudmore, and Hestia Jones. A surprising amount of people volunteered to come and get you."

"The more the better," Moody said darkly. "They're your guard, Potter."

Harriet had given an awkward nod to each of them as she was introduced. She wished they would look at something beside her. The distraction came in the form of Ursula hurrying down the stairs.

"Hold on!" She handed over a Louis Vuitton makeup bag. "I picked a few things from our vanities that we were playing with earlier. You've got a little bit of everything: eye palettes, face and cheek palettes, plenty of lipsticks. You have stuff to make dozens of looks if you want."

Moody suddenly swore and covered his magical eye. "It keeps sticking! Ever since that scum wore it." He trailed off as there was a horrible squelching sound and he popped the eyeball out.

"Mad-Eye, you know that's disgusting, don't you?" Tonks asked conversationally.

"Get me a glass of water, would you, Harriet?" Moody asked.

"I'll get it," Margarita said. She walked to the kitchen. She came back a few moments later with a glass full of liquid.

Moody took the glass from Margarita and dropped his magical eye into the glass and prodded it up and down. "I want three hundred and sixty degree visibility on the return journey."

"How are we getting – wherever we're going?" Harriet asked.

"Brooms," answered Lupin. "It's the only way. You are too young to Apparate and they'll be watching the Floo Network and it's more than our life's worth to create an unauthorized Portkey."

"And side-along Apparating is out of the question because it's a logical thought," Ursula added. She sighed. "So I guess by broom is the only way."

Moody growled at Ursula. "They can track a magical signature with Apparation, girl."

"So the Ministry and or Voldemort's people know you're all here then," Ursula sniped. "I guess we should expect a knock on our door from them then. Lovely. We needed something to jazz up our night."

The wizards flinched at Voldemort's name and how Ursula spoke it so casually.

Ophelia shook her head at the group. "Spineless," she muttered in contempt.

The bald black man spoke up. "Remus says you're a good flyer," Kingsley said in his deep voice.

"She's excellent," Lupin said, checking his watch. "The signal should be coming soon."

Moody replaced his magic eye, spinning it around in the socket. "Come here, girl," he said to Harriet. "I need to Disillusion you."

"You need to what?" Harriet asked.

Moody already had his wand out and was pointing it at Harriet. The wand was yanked out of Moody's hand and stuck to the ceiling. The wizards jumped, some going for their wands and having the same thing happen to them.

"She asked you a question," Ophelia said slowly. "Are you going to answer her or are you just going to do what you want and not inform her?"

"I don't know, Ophelia," drawled Ursula. "They seem to be very good at ignoring her."

"She may have an invisibility cloak, but it won't stay on during the flight," said Lupin.

Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Of course, they won't explain it to you. Keep you ignorant and under their thumb so they can control you," she grumbled, turning to Harriet. "It's basically a camouflage spell. If someone is really looking, they can see you, but if it's just a passing glance, you won't be noticed. It doesn't work if people know you're there already."

"Oh," Harriet said dumbly. "Self-explanatory then."

"Come here, darling, I'll do it for you," said Ursula.

Ursula gave Harriet's ears a tickle with her fingernails. Harriet swatted at her ears to stop the tickling, but she was already disappearing from view.

"There, you're ready," said Ursula.

Harriet looked down and saw herself blending in with everything around her.

Lupin checked his watch again. "The first signal will be coming any moment. If you would be kind enough to give our wands back?"

Ophelia gave him a dark look and waved her hand. The wands dropped from the ceiling on to the floor. She then turned to Harriet. "We'll see you soon, Harriet."

* * *

**So did you find all nine "eggs"? And what do you think of the story so far? Again, this is the first time I've done a _Harry Potter_ story and I do value your input.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, I wasn't expecting this to be so popular. _Harry Potter _is new territory for me so to see the amount of people reading it is encouraging. I will let you know right now that I did not do a scavenger hunt for this chapter. I did one reference near the beginning of this chapter and felt doing a hunt wouldn't fit in with what is happening. Most of this chapter comes from the book with some scenes rearranged to set up for the rest of the story. Let me know if you want me to do another scavenger hunt for the next chapter. Also, anyone care to take a guess of who the mysterious John the four witches talk about is or who the man Ophelia was talking to on the phone may be? Both are Easter eggs from the first chapter that may pop up again. So without further ado, enjoy the chapter and I'll see you at the end.**

* * *

The flight to wherever they were going left Harriet feeling exhilarated and free. She was flying away from Privet Drive, something she had been fantasizing all summer. For a few moments all her troubles were gone. Moody shouted orders from behind her of where to fly while Tonks led the way, Lupin flying below Harriet. The others rotated their positions around them. Hedwig had been allowed to fly on her own and would meet them wherever they were going.

Below them, the patchwork of blacks and darkened greens blurred as they sped through the air, lights from towns and cars peppering the ground. At the largest collection of lights they began their descent. As they descended, Harriet began to see the individual streetlights and cars, chimneys and antennas. They landed on a patch of overgrown grass. Shivering, Harriet looked at the row of dilapidated houses in front of them.

"Where are we?" Harriet asked Lupin.

"In a minute," Lupin quietly said.

Moody took out a small cigarette lighter from his pocket and started clicking it. Each click caused the nearest streetlight to go out with a pop just like they had on Privet Drive. Soon the whole street was dark with only the moon and stars giving them any light.

"Borrowed it from Dumbledore," Moody growled, putting the cigarette lighter back into his pocket. "That'll take care of any Muggles looking out the window. Now, come on, quick."

Moody practically pulled Harriet across the street, Lupin and Tonks carrying her trunk behind them. Moody thrust a piece of paper into Harriet's hand.

"What?" she started to say.

Moody hushed her. "Read it and memorize it quickly."

Harriet looked down at the paper in her hand.

_The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, London._

Harriet frowned. "What is the –?"

"Be quiet, girl!" Moody snarled. "Not until we're inside." He took the paper from her and used his wand to set it on fire.

Harriet was very confused.

"Think about what you've just memorized," Lupin prompted, his voice soft like he was giving her a hint to a test.

Harriet thought about the paper and immediately another house appeared between eleven and thirteen.

Moody pushed her towards the door with an impatient growl.

The next few minutes irritated Harriet. Moody and Lupin told her to go inside, but not too far and not to touch anything. Moody relit the streetlights with the cigarette lighter before coming inside. The house on the inside was dark, dingy, and smelt damp and of mold and rot. Moody took the Disillusionment Charm off of Harriet with some difficulty and ordered her to stay where she was and be quiet while he got some light in the room. Already Harriet was missing the women of Number Two as they would answer her questions when she asked them and would let her ask them. Ophelia's words about how they expected her to be an obedient little dog and do as she was told with no question or hesitation were ringing in her head.

Moody lit the old gaslights to reveal the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet. The portraits were crooked and darkened with age. The serpent themed chandelier was covered in cobwebs and everything was covered in dirt and grime. Harriet heard something scurrying behind the baseboards. This was accompanied by the whispers of her guards and it gave Harriet a sense of foreboding.

Mrs. Weasley hurried into the room looking paler and thinner than the last time Harriet saw her. "Oh, Harriet, it's lovely to see you!" She engulfed Harriet in a rib-cracking hug before holding her at arm's length. "You look a bit peaky. You'll need some feeding up, but you'll have to wait a bit for dinner, I'm afraid."

She turned to the gang of wizards behind Harriet and whispered urgently. "He's just arrived. The meeting's started."

The wizards behind Harriet began to file through the door Mrs. Weasley came through. Harriet went to follow Lupin, but Mrs. Weasley stopped her.

"No, Harriet, the meeting is for Order members only," she said gently. "Ron and Hermione are upstairs, you can wait with them until the meeting is over and then we can have dinner. And keep your voice down in the hall."

"Why?"

"I don't want to wake anything up. I'll explain later. I'm supposed to be at the meeting. I'll show you where you will be sleeping." She pressed her finger to her lips and led Harriet passed a set of moth-eaten curtains and skirted around an umbrella stand that was made from a severed troll's leg. Tip-toeing up the stairs, they passed a row of small severed heads mounted on plaques. A closer look showed Harriet they were house-elf heads, all with the same snout-like noses. Harriet wondered why her friends were in a house like this.

Harriet opened her mouth to ask Mrs. Weasley, but was cut off once again.

"Ron and Hermione will explain everything to you, dear, I've got to dash," she said distractedly. They reached the second landing. "There, you're the door on the left. You'll be staying with Hermione and Ginny. Ron and Hermione are in Ron's room at the moment, the door on the right. I'll call you when it's over." She hurried back downstairs without another word.

Harriet stood on the landing for a long moment. She was regretting her decision to leave Number Two. It hadn't even been an hour and she wanted to turn around and fly right back to them. Nobody would tell her anything and she couldn't ask questions. She might as well just go back to the Dursleys with the way they were treating her. The only thing they hadn't done was make her cook and clean the house.

With a deep breath, Harriet turned the doorknob that was shaped like a snake's head and opened the door. She was greeted by a loud twittering noise immediately followed by an even louder shriek. Harriet's vision was obscured by a large quantity of bushy brown hair. Hermione had thrown herself into Harriet and almost knocked her down. Above them, Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon, zoomed around their heads in excitement.

"HARRIET! Ron, she's here, Harriet's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless – but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got to tell us – the Dementors! When we heard – and that Ministry hearing – it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provisions in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life threatening situations –"

"Let her breathe, Hermione," said Ron, grinning and closing the door behind Harriet. He had changed a bit since Harriet last saw him, having grown several inches and seemed ganglier, but his long nose, freckles, and red hair were still the same.

Hermione was still beaming as she let go of Harriet, but before she could say anything else, Hedwig glided into the room. The snowy owl landed on Harriet's shoulder.

"There you are, Hedwig," said Harriet.

"She's been in a right state!" Ron complained. "She pecked us half to death the last time you sent letters. Look at my hand!" He held up his hand to show the healing cut.

"I wanted answers," Harriet stated, not able to bring herself to feel sorry for what Hedwig had done to Ron.

"We wanted to give them to you," said Ron.

"But Dumbledore made you swear," Harriet finished. "I heard Hermione."

There was a long awkward silence. As nice as it was to see her friends again, Harriet felt like she would rather be alone.

"He seemed to think it was for the best," Hermione said quietly. "Dumbledore, I mean."

Harriet noticed that Hermione also had scratches on her hands from Hedwig. Again, she couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for her owl's actions.

"I think he thought you would be safest with the Muggles," Ron started.

Harriet quickly cut him off. "Safe? You call Dementors showing up in Little Whinging safe?"

"Well no – that's why he's had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time," said Hermione.

Harriet was angry. So she had people watching her all summer long and didn't know about it. "And what good was that?" she spat.

"He was so angry," Hermione continued, a tone of awe in her voice. "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out that Mundungus left before his shift had ended. He was scary."

"I'm glad he did leave," Harriet said coldly. "If he hadn't, then the Dementors wouldn't have attacked me and Dumbledore would have left me at Privet Drive until school started."

"Harriet, don't be like that," said Hermione. "Dumbledore is just looking out for you. He got you the hearing at the Ministry of Magic. Aren't you worried about that?"

"Not in the least," Harriet snapped. "They can't expel me for magic I didn't do."

At least she hoped they couldn't. Then again, Ursula had pointed out that giving her a hearing was a second thought to the Ministry and they were probably just going to snap her wand anyway.

Ron and Hermione frowned.

"What do you mean?" asked Ron. "The only way to fight a Dementor is with a Patronus. You're the only witch living in Little Whinging. It had to be you."

"Turns out the new neighbors know magic," said Harriet. "It was one of them who destroyed the Dementors."

"Harriet, you can't destroy a Dementor," Hermione stated with her know-it-all tone. "The only thing that has any effect on them is a Patronus Charm. You can only drive them away. Besides, the Improper Use of Magic Office detected a Patronus Charm. Your neighbor must have used a Patronus Charm then. They can testify in your defense! You need to write to them right away and tell them about the hearing! You won't be expelled now!"

Harriet stepped away, petting Hedwig. Hermione's superior tone was grating on her and she was trying not to lose her temper. Taking the moment to look around the dark and dingy room gave her the time to calm herself a little.

"So why has Dumbledore kept me in the dark?" Harriet asked. "Did you bother to ask him?"

She had to wonder if they did. Hermione was one to take his words at face value and argue that because Dumbledore said them, they had no right to question them. Ron probably would question it, but then would get scolded by Hermione for doing so.

"We told Dumbledore that we wanted to tell you what was going on," said Ron. "Really, we did. But he's always so busy now. He's only been here twice since we came here and he never stays long. He made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote. He said the owls could get intercepted."

"So you decided to send me the same thing over and over, written in a different way," said Harriet. "And he could have told me! You can't tell me that he doesn't know of other ways to pass on a message that doesn't use owls. You know ways without owls!"

Hermione glanced at Ron. "I thought of that, too. But he didn't want you to know anything."

"Of course. Why should I?" Harriet asked acidly.

Ron scowled. "Don't be thick."

Harriet narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't be thick?" she repeated. "How can I be anything but? No one tells me anything. Dumbledore just sends me back to the Dursleys and leaves me there like something to be forgotten about until it is needed. Meanwhile, the only letters I receive from my friends tell me everything is fine and do my homework over and over. By the way, my homework has been done for weeks! Not that you bothered to read that part in any of the letters I sent you! If you even read my letters!"

"We didn't know what else to write," Hermione defended.

"And now I find out you've been here all this time, knowing everything that has been going on," Harriet went on.

"We don't!" Ron cried. "Mum won't let us near the meetings. She says we're too young!"

"Oh, so that means you don't know about this house, you don't know about this Order, you don't know what is happening in the Wizarding World?" Harriet snapped. "Then that makes it all okay because you're not allowed into the Order meetings!"

Harriet surprised herself with her tone. It reminded her of Ophelia and Ursula when they were laying into Moody and the others earlier.

With a breath, Harriet composed herself. "You asked if I was furious with you. Yes, I am furious with you. I came here to get answers. But if all you have are excuses of how Dumbledore made you swear not to tell me anything, I don't want to speak with you right now."

With that, Harriet opened the door and left the room.

"Harriet!" Hermione cried after her.

"Come on, Harriet, don't be like that!" Ron called.

Harriet ignored them and headed for the stairs, intent on finding her trunk. She didn't get far before there were two loud cracks and Ron's elder twin brothers appeared in front of her.

"Hello, Harriet," George greeted with a beaming smile. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up anger like that, Harriet, let it all out," Fred said with an identical smile.

"You passed your Apparation tests?" Harriet asked.

"With distinction," said Fred. He was holding a very long, flesh-colored string in one hand.

Harriet frowned. "What is that?" she asked, pointing to what was in Fred's hand.

"Extendable Ear," said Fred, holding up the string. Harriet could see it trailed behind him and continued out onto the landing. "We've been trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"Lovely inventions, these Ears," said George, holding up one of his own. "Wouldn't be able to do it without you. Unfortunately, all we've been able to hear in the last few minutes is you three. So could you keep it down?"

The other door opened and Ginny stepped out into the hallway. "Oh, hello, Harriet," she said brightly. "I thought I heard you."

She turned to Fred and George. "It's no good trying to use the Extendable Ears. There's an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"How'd you know?" George asked, disappointed.

"Tonks told me how to find out," said Ginny. "I've been tossing Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just go flying away from it. There's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap."

Hermione and Ron came out into the hallway.

Fred let out a heavy sigh. "Shame. I fancied finding out what Snape has been up to."

"Snape?" asked Harriet. "He's here?"

"Yeah," George replied. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," Fred added idly.

"He's on our side," Hermione said curtly.

"Doesn't stop him from being a git," Ron agreed with his brothers.

"Bill doesn't like him either," Ginny added.

Harriet wrinkled her nose. "Maybe I shouldn't be listening to this. After all, I'm to be kept in the dark about everything." She brushed passed the twins to get to the stairs.

"Harriet," Hermione pleaded. "We're sorry."

Harriet paused and looked over her shoulder. "And I suppose that makes everything okay. You're sorry and all of it goes away." She continued her way down the stairs.

Her trunk was where Lupin and Tonks had left it. She went to retrieve the journal Forsythia had given her. Before she could open her trunk, the kitchen door opened and people began to file out. She noticed Mrs. Weasley heading upstairs. Everyone was tip-toeing around and speaking in whispers, especially those close to the curtains.

Then it wasn't so quiet. Tonks tripped over the umbrella stand and knocked it over with a loud crash. The curtains snapped apart to reveal a life-size portrait of a hideous old woman who began screaming at them. The screaming woke the other portraits, who started screaming as well.

Lupin and Mrs. Weasley came running and struggled to close the curtains, but Mrs. Weasley soon abandoned trying in order to stun the other screaming portraits with her wand.

"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers!" The old woman was drooling and her eyes were rolling around in her sockets as she screamed, yellow skin pulled tight on her face.

Tonks was repeatedly apologizing while trying to right the heavy stand.

Something in that moment snapped in Harriet. The stress of dealing with the Dursleys, the mess with the Dementors, being kept in the dark, her friends lying to her, and trying to keep her temper in check, coupled with the fact that she didn't have the freedom she had for those couple of days with the women of Number Two caused Harriet to lash out.

"Shut up! You gross old witch! The only vileness here is the state of this house! As for half-breeds, mutants, and freaks, look in a mirror! You drooling, emaciated cow!"

The woman in the portrait looked in Harriet's direction in shock. This gave Lupin and Mrs. Weasley time to pull the curtains closed. The woman in the portrait started ranting again, but now the curtains muffled it.

Harriet panted heavily, looking at the curtains.

"Well." Everyone turned to the kitchen door. Standing in the doorway was Harriet's godfather, Sirius Black. "I see you've met my mother."

"Your mother?" asked Harriet.

"My dear old mum, yeah," said Sirius. "We've been trying to get her down for a month but we think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of the canvas. Let's get downstairs, quick, before they all wake up again."

"But what is a portrait of your mother doing here?" Harriet asked, bewildered. They went through the door from the hall and down a flight of narrow stone steps, the others just behind them.

"Hasn't anyone told you? This was my parents' house," said Sirius. "But I'm the last Black left, so it's mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for headquarters – about the only useful thing I've been able to do."

Harriet noticed how hard and bitter Sirius's voice sounded. She followed her godfather to the bottom of the stairs and through a door leading into the basement kitchen.

It was a cavernous room with rough stone walls scarcely less gloomy than the hall above. The majority of the light was coming from a large fire at the far end of the room. A haze of pipe smoke hung in the air turning the heavy iron pots and pans hanging from the dark ceiling into menacing shapes. Many chairs were crammed into the room for the meeting. In the middle of the room was a long wooden table littered with rolls of parchment, goblets, empty wine bottles, and a heap of what appeared to be rags. Mr. Weasley and his eldest son, Bill, were talking quietly with their heads together at the end of the table.

Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat. Her husband looked around and jumped to his feet.

"Harriet!" Mr. Weasley said, hurrying forward to greet her and shaking her hand vigorously. "Good to see you!"

Harriet looked over Mr. Weasley's shoulder and saw Bill, who still wore his long hair in a ponytail, hastily rolling up lengths of parchment left on the table.

"Journey all right, Harriet?" Bill called, trying to gather up twelve scrolls at once. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, then?"

"He tried," said Tonks, striding over to help Bill and immediately sending a candle toppling on the last piece of parchment. "Oh, no! Sorry!"

"Here, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, sounding exasperated, and she repaired the parchment with a wave of her wand. In the flash of light caused by Mrs. Weasley's charm, Harriet caught a glimpse of what looked like the plan of a building.

Mrs. Weasley had seen her looking and snatched the plan off the table, stuffing it into Bill's heavily laden arms. "This sort of thing ought to be cleared away promptly at the end of meetings," she snapped. She went over to an ancient dresser and started taking out dinner plates.

Bill took out his wand. "Evanesco." The scrolls vanished.

"Sit down, Harriet," Sirius told her. "This is Mundungus Fletcher. He was supposed to be guarding you that night."

The thing that Harriet thought was a pile of rags gave a long snore and jerked awake.

"Some'n say m' name?" Mundungus mumbled sleepily. "I 'gree with Sirius." He raised a very grubby hand in the air like he was voting, his bloodshot, droopy eyes unfocused.

"The meeting's over, Dung," said Sirius. "Harriet's arrived."

Everyone sat down around them.

Mundungus peered balefully at Harriet through matted ginger hair. "Eh? Blimey, so she 'as. Yeah . . . you all right, 'arriet?"

"Yes," Harriet replied.

Mundungus fumbled nervously in his pockets, still staring at Harriet, and pulled out a grimy black pipe. He stuck it in his mouth and lit it with his wand. He took a long draw on it. Billowing clouds of greenish smoke obscured him in seconds.

"Owe you a 'pology," he grunted in the middle of the smelly cloud.

"For the last time, Mundungus," called Mrs. Weasley, "will you please not smoke that thing in the kitchen, especially not when we're about to eat!"

"Right. Sorry, Molly." The smoke cloud vanished as Mundungus stowed his pipe back in his pocket. However the acrid smell still lingered.

"And if you want dinner before midnight I'll need a hand," Mrs. Weasley said to no one in particular.

Harriet started to rise from her seat.

"No, you can stay where you are, Harriet dear, you've had long journey," said Mrs. Weasley.

"What can I do, Molly?" said Tonks enthusiastically, bounding forward.

Mrs. Weasley hesitated. "Er, no, it's all right, Tonks. You have a rest, too, you've done enough today."

"No, no, I want to help!" Tonks said brightly, knocking over a chair as she rushed toward the dresser from where Ginny was collecting cutlery.

Heavy knives chopped meat and vegetables on their own under the supervision of Mr. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley stirred a cauldron dangling over the fire and others gathered more plates and goblets and got food from the pantry. Harriet was left at the table with Sirius and Mundungus.

Something brushed against her leg and startled her, but it was only Crookshanks, Hermione's bandy-legged ginger cat with the squashed in face. He wound himself once around Harriet's legs, purring, then jumped into Sirius's lap and curled up. Sirius absentmindedly scratched the cat behind the ears as he turned to Harriet, looking grim.

"Had a good summer so far?" Sirius asked.

"Not really," said Harriet.

Something that looked like a grin crossed Sirius's face. "Don't know what you're complaining about. Personally, I'd have welcomed a Dementor attack. A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely. You think you've had it bad, at least you've been able to get out and about, stretch your legs, get into a few fights. I've been stuck inside for a month."

Harriet frowned. "How come?"

"Because the Ministry of Magic's still after me," answered Sirius. "And Voldemort will know all about me being an Animagus by now, Wormtail would have told him, so my big disguise is useless. There's not much I can do for the Order of the Phoenix . . . or so Dumbledore feels."

Harriet heard the flat tone in Sirius's voice when he spoke Dumbledore's name. Clearly he was not happy with the headmaster either.

"At least you've known what's going on," Harriet said. "I'm to be kept in the dark."

"Oh yeah," Sirius said sarcastically. "Listening to Snape's reports, having to take all his snide hints that he's out there and risking his life while I'm sat on my backside here having a nice comfortable time, asking me how cleaning's going –"

"What cleaning?" asked Harriet.

"Trying to make this place fit for human habitation," said Sirius, waving a hand around the dismal kitchen. "No one's lived here for ten years, not since my dear mother died, unless you count her old house-elf, and he's going around the twist, hasn't cleaned anything in ages."

So this was going to be exactly like the Dursleys.

"Sirius?" said Mundungus, who did not appear to have paid any attention to the conversation, but had been minutely examining an empty goblet. "This solid silver, mate?"

"Yes," said Sirius, surveying it with distaste. "Finest fifteen century goblin-wrought silver, embossed with the Black family crest."

"That'd come off, though," muttered Mundungus, polishing it with his cuff.

"Fred – George – NO, JUST CARRY THEM!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked.

Harriet, Sirius, and Mundungus were forced to dive away from the table. Fred and George had thought it was a good idea to bewitch a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of butterbeer, and a heavy wooden breadboard with its knife to move it to the table. The stew skidded the length of the table and came to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface. The flagon of butterbeer fell with a crash, spilling its contents everywhere. The bread knife slipped off the board and landed point down in the table exactly where Sirius's right hand had been seconds ago.

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" screamed Mrs. Weasley. "THERE WAS NO NEED – I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS – JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!"

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" said Fred, hurrying forward and wrenching the bread knife out of the table. "Sorry, Sirius, mate – didn't mean to –"

Harriet and Sirius were both laughing. Mundungus, who had toppled backward off his chair, was swearing as he got to his feet. Crookshanks had given an angry hiss and shot off under the dresser, his large yellow eyes glowing in the darkness.

"Boys," Mr. Weasley said, lifting the stew back into the middle of the table, "your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age."

"None of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mrs. Weasley raged at the twins. She slammed a fresh flagon of butterbeer onto the table and spilling almost as much again. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't Charm everything he met! Percy –" she cut herself off, catching her breath with a frightened look at her husband, whose expression was suddenly wooden.

Harriet watched them. Had something happen to Percy?

"Let's eat," Bill said quickly.

"It looks wonderful, Molly," said Lupin, ladling stew onto a plate for her and handing it across the table.

The next few minutes were spent in silence, the only sounds at the table being the scraping of chairs and clinking of utensils.

Mrs. Weasley found her voice again and said to Sirius, "I've been meaning to tell you, there's something trapped in the writing desk in the drawing room, it keeps rattling and shaking. Of course, it could just be a boggart, but I thought we ought to ask Alastor to have a look at it before we let it out."

"Whatever you like," Sirius said indifferently.

"The curtains in there are full of doxies too," Mrs. Weasley went on. "I thought we might try and tackle them tomorrow."

"I look forward to it," said Sirius. Harriet could hear the sarcasm in his voice, but she wasn't sure if anyone else did. She found it odd that Mrs. Weasley was making the decisions about the house and not Sirius. Then again, Sirius didn't seem to like the house, so maybe he left those decisions to Mrs. Weasley.

She turned to look across the table and received a shock when she saw Tonks's face scrunched up as if in pain and her nose swelling into a beak shaped protuberance. It then shrank into a button mushroom shape and sprouted a great amount of nose hair. Hermione and Ginny were thoroughly entertained by the display.

Seeing her shocked face, Hermione explained it to Harriet. "Tonks is a Metamophmagus. She can change her appearance at will without the need of a wand or potion. It's very rare for one of them to be born."

Tonks grinned. "I got top marks in Concealment and Disguise during Auror training," she said proudly.

"You're an Auror?" Harriet asked Tonks.

"Yeah," she said. "So is Kingsley; he's a bit higher up than I am, though. I only qualified a year ago. Nearly failed on Stealth and Tracking, I'm dead clumsy."

"Can you learn to be a Metamorphmagus?" asked Harriet.

Tonks laughed a little. "Bet you wouldn't mind hiding that scar sometimes. But no, Metamorphmagi are born, not made. You'll just have to learn the hard way," she said, looking at the famous lightning shaped scar on Harriet's forehead. "Although it seems you've done a pretty good job of it yourself."

Harriet reached up and touched her scar, remembering that she had concealer over it.

"Do that one that looks like a pig snout, Tonks," Ginny requested.

Tonks obliged and Harriet had the impression that a female Dudley was grinning at her from across the table and giggled.

Harriet caught snippets of the intense conversation between Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Lupin. It sounded like they were talking about the goblins. The other end of the table burst out into laughter at Mundungus's story about a man named Will and nicked toads. Mrs. Weasley scolded him about being a bad influence on the children. She then threw Sirius a nasty look and went to fetch a large rhubarb crumble for pudding. Harriet looked at her godfather.

"Molly doesn't approve of Mundungus," Sirius told her quietly.

"How come he's in the Order?" Harriet asked.

"He's useful," Sirius muttered. "Knows all the crooks, seeing as he's one himself. But he's also very loyal to Dumbledore, who helped him out of a tight spot once. It pays to have someone like Dung around. He hears things we don't. But Molly thinks inviting him to stay for dinner is going too far. She hasn't forgiven him for slipping off duty when he was supposed to be tailing you."

Harriet stared at her plate. "Would it be wrong to say I'm glad he did?" she whispered.

"I would want to see some action too in that boring place," said Sirius.

"I met the new neighbors," Harriet told him quietly. "They have magic."

"Really?" asked Sirius, very intrigued. "Tell me about these neighbors."

Mrs. Weasley returned with the rhubarb crumble.

"I'll tell you later," said Harriet.

After several helpings of crumble and custard, everyone was beginning to doze off.

"Nearly time for bed, I think," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Not just yet, Molly," said Sirius, pushing his empty plate away and turning to look at Harriet. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

The atmosphere in the room changed. Where seconds before it had been sleepily relaxed, it was now alert, even tense. A shudder had gone around the table at the mention of Voldemort's name.

"I did," Harriet stated bitterly. "I asked Ron and Hermione but they were sworn to secrecy. They said that they weren't allowed in the Order, so –"

"And they're quite right," interrupted Mrs. Weasley. "You're too young." She was sitting bolt upright in her chair, her fists clenched upon its arms, every trace of drowsiness gone.

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" asked Sirius. "Harriet's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. She's got the right to know what's been happen –"

"Hang on!" George jumped in.

"How come Harriet gets her questions answered?" Fred said angrily.

"We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single stinking thing!" said George.

"'You're too young, you're not in the Order,'" Fred said, in a high-pitched voice that sounded uncannily like his mother's. "Harriet's not even of age!"

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," said Sirius calmly. "That's your parents' decision. Harriet, on the other hand –"

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harriet!" said Mrs. Weasley sharply. Her normally kind face looked dangerous. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which bit?" Sirius asked politely, but sounding like he was preparing for a fight.

"The bit about not telling Harriet more than he needs to know," Mrs. Weasley answered, emphasizing the last three words.

Harriet took a slow breath as the rest of the room watched Mrs. Weasley and Sirius like they were watching a tennis match. She knew she wouldn't get any answers since Dumbledore told them only to tell her what she needed to know, which was nothing except where to go and what to do.

"I don't intend to tell her more than he needs to know, Molly," Sirius said, repeating Mrs. Weasley's words back to her in the same tone as she had, "but as she was the one who saw Voldemort come back, she has more right than most to –"

"She's not a member of the Order of the Phoenix!" Mrs. Weasley yelled over him. "She's only fifteen and –"

"And she's dealt more with as much as most in the Order," Sirius argued, "and more than some –"

"No one's denying what she's done!" said Mrs. Weasley, her voice rising and her fists trembling on the arms of her chair. "But she's still –"

"She's not a child!" Sirius said impatiently.

"She's not an adult either!" Mrs. Weasley shot back, the color rising in her cheeks. "She's not James, Sirius!"

"I'm perfectly clear who she is, thanks, Molly," said Sirius coldly.

"I'm not sure you are!" said Mrs. Weasley. "Sometimes, the way you talk about her, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back! She is not her father, however much she may look like him! She's still in school and adults responsible for her should not forget it!"

"Meaning I'm an irresponsible godfather?" demanded Sirius, his voice rising.

"Meaning you've been known to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbledore keeps reminding you to stay home and –"

"We'll leave my instructions from Dumbledore out of this, if you please!" said Sirius loudly.

"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley rounded on her husband. "Arthur, back me up!"

"Dumbledore knows the position has changed, Molly," said Mr. Weasley. "He accepts that Harriet will have to be filled in to a certain extent now that she's staying at headquarters –"

"Yes, but there's a difference between that and inviting her to ask whatever she likes!" Mrs. Weasley argued.

For the second time that night, Harriet snapped. "Stop it!" She slammed her fist down on the table.

Everyone jumped and whipped around to her.

"I get it, okay?" Harriet said angrily. "I'm not supposed to know anything on Dumbledore's orders. Can you please stop rubbing that fact in my face and arguing like I'm not even here?"

"Hang on," Ron blurted out. "Upstairs you were yelling at us for not telling you anything! Now you're saying you don't want to know?"

Harriet turned on Ron. "Of course I want to know what's going on! I'm sick of people making decisions for me and not telling me about them! I'm sick of being left in the dark! Since I've been here I've been told where to step, where to stand, to not ask questions and be quiet! I know the only reason I'm even here is because of the Dementors!"

Panting, Harriet stood up and addressed the shocked room. "I'm going to bed. Am I allowed to do that?"

Lupin was the first to recover. "All right, Harriet."

Harriet gave Mrs. Weasley a quick thank you for supper and hurried out of the kitchen, the twins following her. She went to get her trunk to take it upstairs.

"Here, Harriet," said Fred.

"We got it," said George. He waved his wand and levitated her trunk up the stairs.

Harriet went up to the girls' room. Two of the three beds had trunks at the foot of them. George set her trunk down at the end of the third bed.

"Well, that was certainly a sight to behold," said Fred.

"We would have thought you would demand answers," said George.

"But yelling about how you aren't allowed to know anything, that's certainly a different tactic to learn something," Fred commented.

Harriet shook her head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled, but I couldn't take it anymore."

"We don't blame you," said the twins.

"We would be frustrated, too," said Fred.

"And we are frustrated with what little we do know," said George. "We'll tell you when we learn something."

"Thanks," said Harriet.

The twins left and Harriet started to get ready for bed. She opened her trunk and took out the journal and searched for her pajamas. Hermione and Ginny came up a few minutes after the twins left. Ginny gave Harriet a glare while Hermione looked disappointed with her.

"Why didn't you make them tell you?" Ginny demanded. "You were our best shot at knowing what's going on in the Order."

Harriet climbed into bed, tucking the journal under the blanket.

"Let her go, Ginny," Hermione said quietly.

Harriet listened to Hermione and Ginny climb into bed and waited until they were asleep. Once she was sure they were asleep, she put her glasses back on and fumbled around with the journal. A small pen was tucked in the spine. Harriet pulled it out and clicked the top on accident. A bright light blinded her and she shoved the pen under the blankets. When her vision wasn't spotty any longer, she lifted the pen out of the blankets and saw the end was lit up.

She opened the journal to see it set up like a day planner. Events were written in a flowing script in green ink making the letters resemble vines. Before she could read much more than a planting day, there was sharp sting on the back of her hand. Moving the pen light, she saw the ribbon bookmark rise up and waggle at her like it was scolding Harriet for being nosey. The pages flipped to a fully lined page for notes and the ribbon wrapped itself around the previous pages.

Harriet figured out there was a button on the side of the pen that allowed it to reveal the ballpoint.

_"Hello?" _she wrote.

Harriet waited a few moments before cursive writing with wide loops in bold purple ink appeared.

_"Harriet! So glad to read from you. This is Ophelia."_

Under the purple words appeared black words in tall cursive._ "She probably guessed. Who else writes in purple ink?"_

Harriet thought for a moment before writing back._ "I'm in London . . ." _When she tried to write the address, she found she couldn't._ "I can't tell you where I am. My hand won't let me!"_

_"Calm down," _Ophelia wrote._ "You're safe though, right? We'll find you if need be. We have our ways of finding things. Don't we, ladies?"_

_"You're probably under a spell that doesn't let you tell you location," _wrote a neat hand in small letters, again in black ink.

_"Margarita's right. So did you learn anything?"_

_"Not a lot," _Harriet scrawled._ "Ron and Hermione weren't allowed to tell me anything: Dumbledore's orders."_

_"I can feel the aggression," _Ophelia wrote back._ "Anything else?"_

_"No. I kind of blew it. I was angry they were talking about me like I wasn't in the room and saying that Dumbledore didn't want me to know anything and I yelled at them and stormed off. My godfather wanted to tell me something – he was the one who was surprised I hadn't asked about anything. Mrs. Weasley wouldn't let him though. Hermione and Ginny aren't happy with me for that. I don't think Ron is happy with me either. They aren't allowed to know what's happening in the Order. Too young, Mrs. Weasley says."_

_"Order?"_

_"The Order of the Phoenix. I'm not exactly sure what they do. I did learn that Kingsley and Tonks are Aurors."_

_"Aurors_,_"_ Ophelia wrote. _"Explains the entitlement of going wherever they please. They're used to getting their way in things because they are magical law enforcement. 'I'm an Auror, I'm helping people so I can do what I want.' I'm surprised that girl is an Auror with that hair."_

_"She's a Metamorphmagus," _Harriet told them.

_"Explains that, then,"_ Ophelia wrote.

_"Those are rare,"_ wrote Margarita. _"Get some sleep, Harriet. We'll talk to you later."_

_"See what you can find out,"_ said Ophelia.

_"Probably not much now,"_ responded Harriet.

_"Don't be too sure," _Ursula wrote. _"You said so yourself: Your godfather acted like he wanted to tell you something. Ask him."_

_"Mrs. Weasley won't let him tell me,"_ Harriet wrote back.

_"Not in front of her, silly,"_ Ophelia wrote. _"Get him alone and convince him to tell you. Honestly, if he was so eager to tell you tonight, it shouldn't be too hard for him to tell you in the morning. You're a smart girl."_

_"Go to sleep, Harriet,"_ Margarita wrote.

_"Oh, leave her alone,"_ Ursula scribbled back. _"Let her have some freedom."_

_"Yeah, she's not the one who has to go see John early in the morning,"_ Ophelia added.

_"Why are you going to see John?" _Ursula wrote in a rush, a hard slant in her lettering.

_"Ah, I love stirring things up,"_ Ophelia wrote. _"We'll talk to you in the morning. Just start writing and one of us will write back. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a fight to watch."_

Harriet tucked the journal away and went to sleep.

The three girls woke up to one of the twins banging on the door telling them to get up. They got out of bed and started getting dressed.

Opening the makeup bag, Harriet saw Ursula had been right when she had said she had packed her a little bit of everything. It was almost overflowing with palettes and compacts, lipsticks and makeup pencils filling every gap in between. Harriet decided she wanted to wear a lipstick. After sorting through full sized and miniature lipsticks in a variety of colors, Harriet settled on a light peachy nude liquid lip and put it on using the mirror in one of the large highlighter compacts. She saw Hermione and Ginny watching her the reflection.

"You're wearing makeup," Ginny stated.

Harriet snapped the compact closed and put everything away. "Just some lipstick."

"Why?" asked Ginny.

Harriet shrugged. "Because I can, I guess."

"Harriet, because you can doesn't mean you should waste your money on makeup and designer brands," Hermione admonished, pointing at the Louis Vuitton bag.

Harriet looked at Hermione. "Ursula sent this with me. And what does it matter to you what I do with my money?"

"It's irresponsible," said Hermione. "You've been so irresponsible the last few days. Leaving the Dursleys, going off with complete strangers."

Harriet turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.

Hermione followed her. "You're not listening to Dumbledore. He's trying to help you. Why are you making everything so difficult?"

"I don't want to talk about this right now," Harriet told her.

"Honestly, what has gotten into you?"

Harriet whirled around. "Leave me alone!" she screamed. "What part of 'I don't want to talk about this right now' do you not understand?"

She didn't wait around for Hermione to recover from her shock. Harriet hurried down the stairs, through the hall, and into an unknown room. She closed the door behind her. The room she had entered had a high ceiling, olive green walls covered in dirty tapestries, moss green velvet curtains that were buzzing, and furniture covered in dust. She then almost let out a scream at the hunchbacked house-elf who was already in the room. It looked very old with its skin several times too big for it and was wearing a filthy torn pillowcase as a tunic. Its large bat-like ears had white hair growing out of them. Large watery gray eyes were bloodshot and its nose was large and snout-like just like the house-elf heads. It looked at her maliciously.

"Nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my Mistress's house, oh my poor Mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they've let in her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh the shame of it, Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors, and thieves, poor old Kreacher, what can he do . . . and there's a new girl, Kreacher doesn't know her name."

Harriet wasn't sure what to think of the muttering house-elf with the croaking voice. It was obvious it knew what it was saying. Gathering her courage, she addressed the house-elf.

"I didn't know there was a house-elf in here," she said. "I'm Harriet. Harriet Potter."

"Is it true? Is it Harriet Potter? Kreacher can see the scar, it must be true, that's that girl who stopped the Dark Lord, Kreacher wonders how she did it."

"I wonder that, too," Harriet said.

"What are you doing?" barked a voice behind Harriet.

Sirius had come into the room.

"Sirius," Harriet began to say, frightened by his tone and sudden entrance.

The house-elf flung itself into a ridiculous low bow. "Kreacher is cleaning."

"A likely story," said Sirius impatiently to the house-elf. "Stand up straight!"

The house-elf did as ordered.

"Now, what are you up to?"

"Kreacher is cleaning," the house-elf repeated. "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black –"

"And it's getting blacker every day, it's filthy," said Sirius.

"Master always liked his little joke," said Kreacher, bowing again before going back to muttering. "Master was a nasty ungrateful swine who broke his mother's heart –"

"My mother didn't have a heart, Kreacher," Sirius snapped. "She kept herself alive out of pure spite."

Kreacher bowed again and said, "Whatever Master says." Kreacher then added, "Master is not fit to wipe slime from his mother's boots, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw Kreacher serving him, how she hated him, what a disappointment he was –"

"I asked you what you were up to," said Sirius, coldly. "Every time you show up to be cleaning, you sneak something off to your room so we can't throw it out."

"Kreacher would never move anything from its proper place in Master's house," said the house-elf. Again adding, "Mistress would never forgive Kreacher if the tapestry was thrown out, seven centuries it's been in the family, Kreacher must save it, Kreacher will not let Master and his blood traitors and the brats destroy it –"

"I thought it might be that," said Sirius, casting a disdainful look at the opposite wall. "She'll have put another Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of it, I don't doubt, but if I can get rid of it I certainly will. Now go away, Kreacher."

It seemed Kreacher did not dare disobey a direct order and shuffled out of the room, still muttering loathingly. "Comes back from Azkaban ordering Kreacher around, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw the house now, scum living in it, her treasures thrown out, she swore he was no son of hers and he's back, they say he's a murderer too –"

"Keep muttering and I will be a murderer!" Sirius snapped irritably and slammed the door shut on the elf.

He turned to Harriet. "Sorry about that. He never was very pleasant."

"It's fine," said Harriet.

"Molly wants to clean this room after breakfast," Sirius told her. "You should get something to eat."

"Not right now," said Harriet. "Hermione will be down there. I really don't want to talk about it right now."

Sirius nodded. He crossed the room to stand in front of a large tapestry hanging on the wall. It was faded and looked as though doxies had gnawed it in places over the years, but the golden thread it was embroidered with still glinted brightly enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back to the Middle Ages. In large letters at the very top of the tapestry read:

**The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black**

**"Toujours Pur"**

Harriet looked at the bottom of the tree where the most recent descendants were listed. "I don't see you on here."

"I used to be there." Sirius pointed to a small charred hole that looked like a cigarette burn. "My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home – Kreacher's quite fond of muttering the story under his breath."

"You ran away from home?"

"I was sixteen," said Sirius. "I'd had enough."

"Where did you go?"

"Your dad's place. Your grandparents were really good about it. They sort of adopted me as a second son. Yeah, I camped out at you dad's during the school holidays, and then when I was seventeen I got a place of my own, my Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold – he's been wipe off here too, that's probably why – anyway, after that I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr. and Mrs. Potter's for Sunday lunch, though."

"Why did you . . . ?"

"Leave?" Sirius smiled brightly. "Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royalty . . . my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them . . . that's him."

He pointed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name Regulus Black. A death date from fifteen years ago follow the birthdate.

"He was younger than me," said Sirius, "and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded. Stupid idiot . . . he joined the Death Eaters."

"Were your parents Death Eaters, too?" Harriet asked tentatively.

"No, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea. But then they saw Voldemort's true colors and what he would do for power and got cold feet. I bet they thought my brother was a right little hero for joining up at first."

"What happened to him?"

"He was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely. I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime service or death."

Harriet thought now would be a good time to ask her questions since they were on the topic of Voldemort. "Sirius, what's happening? What aren't they telling me?"

Sirius began to tell her about the Order of the Phoenix, how it was originally founded by Dumbledore during the First Wizarding War to fight against Voldemort and how her parents were part of the Order. Dumbledore had recently reconvened the Order after Voldemort's return. Sirius also told her how hard it was to spread the word with Minister Fudge refusing to believe Dumbledore that Voldemort had returned. Harriet hadn't been surprised at that as the women of Number Two had told her the Ministry was denying it. Sirius continued by saying Fudge was leading a smear campaign against Dumbledore, believing he was trying to undermine him and take the Minister of Magic position from him. Dumbledore had also been stripped of his Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump titles. Fudge was also going after Harriet, calling her an attention seeking little girl and suggesting she was responsible for Cedric Diggory's death. Harriet had also known that as well.

Then came something she didn't know. The Order was protecting a weapon in the Ministry of Magic, something Voldemort didn't have in the last war. Sirius told Harriet the weapon was a prophecy, something about Voldemort. It was the reason the Potters had to go into hiding. Sirius admitted he did not know the prophecy, only that Dumbledore had been there when it was made along with a spy of Voldemort's. The spy had only heard part of the prophecy and now Voldemort wanted the entire prophecy to use against the Light.

"But why would Dumbledore hide this from me?" Harriet asked.

"He doesn't want to burden you," said Sirius. "He says he wants you to have a normal childhood."

Harriet stared at him in disbelief. A normal childhood? What was Dumbledore's idea of a normal childhood? She had been placed with relatives that hated her and every year at Hogwarts she had been in danger and the adults didn't do anything to help.

Before Harriet could say anything, Mrs. Weasley opened the door.

"There you are, Harriet," she said. "Come down to the kitchen and get your breakfast. We have a lot of work to do today, starting with this room."

Mrs. Weasley gave Sirius a disapproving look before putting her hands on Harriet's shoulders and steering her out of the room.

Mrs. Weasley already had a plate waiting for Harriet at the kitchen table. "Eat up, dear."

Harriet sat down at the table, ignoring the looks she was getting from Hermione and Ginny. The twins were glancing from Harriet to their mother as if they were waiting for something to happen. Ron ignored all this to shovel food into his mouth. Sirius came down moments later and sat across from Harriet. Mrs. Weasley waved her wand at the sink and the dishes began cleaning themselves.

"Hermione tells me you've spent a lot of money on makeup," Mrs. Weasley began, sitting down at the end of the long table. There was a disappointed tone in her voice.

Harriet glared down at her plate. Of course Hermione would run and tell an adult about her so-called irresponsible behavior.

"I don't know why you have, but you don't need it," Mrs. Weasley went on. "You're a very pretty girl without it. Isn't that right, Ron?"

Harriet was puzzled. Why would Mrs. Weasley ask Ron that question? He never cared about her appearance, especially when he was her date for the Yule Ball. Honestly the only thing he did was complain that Hermione had gone with Krum and hadn't said one nice thing to Harriet that night. She glanced down the table and saw Ron take a pause from shoveling food into his mouth, his face scrunching up like he was trying to remember something.

"She's right, Harriet," he said, food still in his mouth. "You shouldn't waste your money."

Disgusted by the display, Harriet turned away.

"You take that makeup off after you finish eating," Mrs. Weasley told her.

"It's only lipstick," Harriet defended. "And like I told Hermione, the makeup was given to me. I didn't have to pay for it."

"I think she looks rather nice with it on," Sirius chimed in. "Leave it on, Harriet."

"And what about your new clothes?" Hermione demanded to know.

"They paid for them, too," said Harriet.

"Why would you let them spend so much money on you? You make it sound like you're a charity case to them. The makeup bag alone is worth a month's rent in the Muggle world," Hermione carried on disapprovingly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know I had to go to you in order to accept gifts from other people." Harriet shot back.

"You barely know them!" Hermione went on. "What if they're Death Eaters?"

"If they were Death Eaters, why didn't they kill me when they had the chance?" Harriet snapped.

"Because they want to deliver you to You-Know-Who!"

"Then why would they let me come here?" Harriet countered. "They could have taken out everybody back at Privet Drive."

"Maybe to learn where the Order is," Ron suggested.

"This place is under the Fidelius Charm," Hermione said haughtily. "Only the Secret Keeper can give the location of this house."

So that was why Harriet couldn't tell the women at Number Two where she was. The spell on the house prevented her.

"Harriet, that is enough," Mrs. Weasley scolded. "You too, Hermione. Finish your breakfasts."

"Well, I would like to know more about these mysterious witches you met," Sirius said to Harriet.

"Us too," said the twins.

"You will have to talk about them later," said Mrs. Weasley. "There is work to be done. The doxy infestation in the drawing room is worse than I first thought. I'm surprised you didn't get bit, Harriet."

After breakfast, Mrs. Weasley outfitted them with scarves and tea towels for over their faces and spray bottles full of black liquid. As she did, she ranted about the poor state the house was in because Kreacher never cleaned it. Hermione gave Mrs. Weasley a reproachful look at her comments and then tried to defend Kreacher by pointing out that he was old.

Sirius came in with a bloodstained bag and told her she would be surprised at what Kreacher could do when he wanted to. He then went over to the writing desk to inspect the drawer. He was sure there was a boggart inside it like Mrs. Weasley had suspected, but suggested Moody should have a look at it just in case it was something worse. Seeing Harriet looking at the bag, he told her that he was feeding Buckbeak, who was staying in his mother's room. The doorbell sounded and set off Mrs. Black's portrait screaming and Sirius rushing from the room to silence her.

"Close the door, Harriet," Mrs. Weasley said.

Harriet went over to the door to close it. She heard voices from downstairs. Sirius had managed to shut his mother's portrait up. She heard the front door open and then Kingsley's voice saying, "Hestia's just relieved me, so she's got Moody's cloak now, thought I'd leave a report for Dumbledore . . ."

"Harriet," Mrs. Weasley said sharply.

Harriet closed the door.

Mrs. Weasley had _Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests_ open on the sofa and was consulting the page on doxies. "Right, you lot, you need to be careful because doxies bite and their teeth are poisonous. I've got a bottle of antidote here, but I'd rather nobody needed it."

She walked over to the curtains. "When I say the word, start spraying," she said. "They'll come flying out at us, I expect, but it says on the sprays one good squirt will paralyze them. When they're immobilized, just throw them in this bucket."

She stepped out of the line of fire and held up her own spray bottle. "All right – squirt!"

After several squirts, doxies began to fly out of the curtains, their pixie-like bodies covered in black fur, all four fists clenched and needle-like teeth bared to attack. As soon as they got a face full of the Doxycide, they froze up and dropped to the floor with heavy thuds.

"Fred, what are you doing?" Mrs. Weasley yelled. "Spray that at once and throw it away!"

Harriet looked around. Fred was holding a struggling doxy between two fingers.

"Right-o," Fred said brightly, spraying the doxy in the face so that it fainted. Instead of throwing it in the bucket, as soon as his mother's back was turned, he pocketed it with a wink to Harriet.

George leaned over to Harriet. "We want to experiment with doxy venom for our Skiving Snackboxes," he whispered.

"What are Skiving Snackboxes?" Harriet asked, spraying two doxies in the face at the same time.

"Range of sweets to make you ill," George explained, keeping an eye on Mrs. Weasley. "Not seriously ill, mind, just ill enough to get you out of a class when you feel like it. Fred and I have been developing them this summer. They're double-ended, color-coded chews. If you eat the orange half of the Puking Pastilles, you throw up. Moment you've been rushed out of the lesson for the hospital wing, you swallow the purple half –"

"'Which restores you to full fitness, enabling you to pursue the leisure activity of your own choice during an hour that you would otherwise have been devoted to unprofitable boredom.' That's what we're putting in the adverts, anyway," whispered Fred, who had edged over out of Mrs. Weasley's line of vision and was now sweeping a few stray doxies from the floor and adding them to his pocket. "But they still need a bit of work. At the moment our testers are having a bit of trouble stopping puking long enough to swallow the purple end."

"Testers?" repeated Harriet.

"Us," said Fred. "We take it in turns. George did the Fainting Fancies – we both tried the Nosebleed Nougat –"

"Mom thought we'd been dueling," said George.

Harriet pretended to adjust the nozzle on her spray bottle. "Joke shop still on then?"

"Well, we haven't had a chance to get premises yet," said Fred, dropping his voice low as Mrs. Weasley mopped her brow with her scarf before going back to the battle. "We're running it as a mail-order service at the moment. We put advertisements in the _Daily Prophet_ last week."

"All thanks to you, mate," said George. "But don't worry . . . Mom hasn't got a clue. She won't read the _Daily Prophet_ anymore, 'cause of it telling lies about you and Dumbledore."

Harriet beamed. She was happy to know that not only did her winnings from the Triwizard Tournament go to their joke shop, but that Mrs. Weasley did not know of her part in furthering their plans to open a joke shop. Their mother did not think running a joke shop was a suitable career for her sons, wanting them to go into the Ministry like her husband and Percy.

The de-doxying of the curtains took the rest of the morning and it was well passed midday when Mrs. Weasley took off her protective scarf. She sat down in the armchair only to jump up with a cry of disgust – she had sat on the bag of rats that Sirius had left behind. The curtains were no longer buzzing and hung limp and damp from the copious amounts of Doxycide that had been sprayed. The bucket was full of doxies and bowl of their black eggs sat next to them. Crookshanks was curiously sniffing the eggs while the twins were eyeing the bowl, clearly planning something for them.

"I think we'll tackle those after lunch." Mrs. Weasley pointed at the dusty glass-fronted cabinets standing on either side of the mantelpiece. They were crammed with an odd assortment of objects: a selection of rusty daggers, claws, a coiled snakeskin, a number of tarnished silver boxes inscribed with languages Harriet could not understand and, least pleasant of all, an ornate crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper, full of what appeared to be blood.

The doorbell sounded again. Everyone looked at Mrs. Weasley.

"Stay here," she said firmly, snatching up the bag of dead rats as Mrs. Black's screeches started up again. "I'll bring up some sandwiches."

She left the room, carefully closing the door behind her.

"D'you reckon we can risk an Extendable Ear?" George asked. "I can sneak upstairs and get a pair."

There was no need to as Mrs. Weasley exploded into a tirade the next moment and everyone could clearly hear what she was saying.

"WE ARE NOT RUNNING A HIDEOUT FOR STOLEN GOODS!"

"It must be Mundungus," said Hermione.

"Oh, I love hearing Mum shouting at someone else," Fred said with a satisfied smile as he opened the door to allow Mrs. Weasley voice be more easily heard. "It makes such a nice change."

"– COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE, AS IF WE HAVEN'T GOT ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT WITHOUT YOU DRAGGING STOLEN CAULDRONS INTO THE HOUSE!"

"The idiots are letting her get into her stride," said George with a shake of his head. "You've got to head her off early, otherwise she builds up a head of steam and goes on for hours. And she's been dying to have a go at Mundungus ever since he sneaked off when he was supposed to be following you, Harriet."

"And there goes Sirius's mum again," Fred added as Mrs. Weasley's voice was lost in the cacophony of shrieks from the portraits in the hall. He shut the door to drown out the sound.

"I've been wanting to ask you something," said Harriet.

Hermione let out a huff. "Harriet, we don't know what's going on with the Order," she said impatiently.

"That's not what I was going to ask." Harriet turned to the twins. "Did something happen to Percy? I noticed that Mrs. Weasley stopped talking when she brought up his name last night."

"Percy and Dad had a row," Fred explained. "I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts."

"It happened the first week back from after term ended," said Ron. "We were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted."

"That's good, isn't it?" asked Harriet. "After everything that happened with Crouch, it is surprising that he got promoted."

"Yeah, we were all surprised," said George. "Percy had gotten into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn't going to complain."

"So how come they promoted him?" asked Harriet.

"That's exactly what we wondered," said Ron. "He came home really pleased with himself – even more pleased than usual if you can imagine that – and told Dad he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts – Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think."

"Only Dad wasn't," said Fred grimly. "Fudge's been storming around the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore's name's mud with the Ministry these days, see," said George. "Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who's in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks."

"Right, the smear campaign," said Harriet.

Hermione looked at her sharply. "How do you know about that? You said you know nothing about what has been happening in the Wizarding World."

"The women at Number Two told me. Sirius told me, too," answered Harriet.

"He shouldn't have told you," Hermione huffed.

"Why, because it wasn't Dumbledore approved?" Harriet asked irritably. "It's not something about the Order – you knew about it."

Hermione stiffened and opened her mouth to say something but Fred cut her off.

"Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he's friendly with Dumbledore, and he's always thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession."

"What does that have to do with Percy?" Harriet interrupted.

"I'm getting to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family and Dumbledore."

"And Percy didn't take well to that, I gather," said Harriet.

Ron laughed hollowly. "He went completely berserk. He said – well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputations ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that's why we've always been – you know – not had a lot of money, I mean –"

"He didn't!" exclaimed Harriet.

"And it got worse," Ron went on. "He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he – Percy – knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't belong to our family anymore. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living here in London now."

"Mum's been in a right state," Ginny added. "You know – crying and stuff. She came up to London to try to talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work – ignores him, I suppose."

Harriet sighed. "I never thought your brother was stupid. He must know Voldemort's back. He must know your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof."

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," said Ron, shooting Harriet a furtive look. "Percy said the only evidence was your word . . . I dunno . . . he didn't think it was good enough."

"Percy takes the _Daily Prophet _seriously." Hermione said tartly.

The others nodded.

Harriet understood. With Voldemort laying low and only having her word to go on, no one believed that Voldemort was back.

They couldn't talk about it more because Mrs. Weasley came back with a tray of sandwiches.

They continued to clean the drawing room until just before dinner. Harriet decided that she needed to change her clothes. She went up to the room she shared with Hermione and Ginny. Opening her trunk, she found the journal on top. Moving it, the ribbon sticking out the bottom gave her hand a swat. The journal then opened to the note page she had been writing on last night. The page was now blank except for the purple writing on the top line.

_"So how was your day?"_ Ophelia had written at some point in the day.

Harriet wrote back, telling Ophelia everything that happened from Hermione calling her irresponsible and tattling to Mrs. Weasley to what Sirius told her about the smear campaign against her and Dumbledore started by the Ministry. Ophelia wasn't surprised at all, writing back to Harriet to tell her she told her so.

Ophelia began to write back that Margarita had spoken to John in the morning about her scar. He wasn't sure if he could help without seeing Harriet and referred her to Ophelia's friend, Jason. Ophelia had been talking with Jason over the phone for the better part of the afternoon and he had said the same in that he would have to meet Harriet in person to make any conclusions.

"Harriet."

Harriet looked up from reading what Ophelia had written to see Hermione in the door.

"What is that?" Hermione asked.

Harriet closed the journal, getting up to put it in her trunk.

Hermione walked up to her. "What are you reading?" She plucked the journal out of Harriet's hands without waiting for an answer and opened it up.

Harriet snatched it back. "It's a journal. And it's private."

Hermione looked at her indignantly. "You don't need to be rude. I was just asking. Anyway, Mrs. Weasley says dinner is ready."

"I'm coming," said Harriet. She put the journal in her trunk and followed Hermione down to the kitchen.

Dinner was a bit strange in Harriet's opinion. Actually it was not so much strange as it was suspicious. First, Mrs. Weasley had informed her she would sit next to Ron, who was already gobbling down his food. Second, Harriet noticed Hermione and Ginny sitting close by her, forcing Sirius, Lupin, and the twins to sit elsewhere. Third, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were sitting at the ends of the table like it was their own house. This forced Harriet to only talk to Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and whatever Order member within earshot without having to shout up and down the table.

After dinner Mrs. Weasley asked Harriet to wash up and scolded Sirius when he tried to call Harriet from the room to speak to her in private. The excuse was that Harriet shouldn't be shirking chores around the house. It wasn't long before Harriet had everything cleaned up and headed up to the room she shared with Hermione and Ginny. What she saw made her stop in the doorway.

Hermione and Ginny were kneeling in front of her trunk trying to get it open.

"What did she lock this with?" Ginny asked irritably, yanking at the lid which stayed stubbornly closed.

"Maybe one of the witches she was staying with did something to it," Hermione suggested. "It may only open with her blood. It can't be her magical signature – we can't use magic outside of Hogwarts; we're underage."

"I say we go get the twins," said Ginny. "They can't stop using magic whenever they can now that they're of age. We'll tell them Harriet lost the key to her trunk."

"Then hurry up," Hermione ordered Ginny. "I want to see what's so special about that book that she doesn't want me to read it."

Ginny scoffed and got to her feet. "You and books."

"I like to read," Hermione stated snootily. "And Sirius won't allow me in the Black library. All that knowledge in there that could help us defeat You-Know-Who and he won't let us touch it. And at least my pastimes don't have me sneaking into broom closets to snog my latest crush."

Harriet fumed. "What are you doing?"

Ginny and Hermione jumped.

"Harriet," Hermione started.

"Save it," snapped Harriet.

"I just wanted to look over your homework," Hermione plowed on. "Your work could always use some improvement and you want to pass all your classes so you can get a good job in the future. I was going to revise it so you have time to rewrite it all before the train leaves. Honestly, I don't know why you wait to the last minute and then complain that you get poor grades."

"So that gives you the right to go through my stuff?" shouted Harriet. "Bad enough that I'm kept in the dark, but I'm not allowed to have any privacy either?"

"We're worried, Harriet," said Hermione.

"No, you're nosey," Harriet snapped back. "Did you ever stop to think that I wouldn't want you going through my stuff?"

"You have a journal," Ginny cut in.

Harriet turned to her. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Don't you remember our second year?" Hermione asked impatiently with a roll of her eyes.

"What about it?" asked Harriet, crossing her arms.

"The diary possessed Ginny," Hermione said. "It made her do things she wouldn't normally do, like you're doing now."

"So because I have a journal I won't let you read there's something wrong," Harriet said sarcastically.

"Exactly," Ginny replied, completely missing Harriet's sarcasm. "We should take it to Mad-Eye. He can tell if it's Dark magic or not."

"So because you suspect it's Dark magic, the Order should know what my own private thoughts are," Harriet went on.

"Harriet, you don't keep secrets from us," Hermione said matter-of-factly. "What's in the journal that you couldn't possibly want the Order to know?"

"Yeah, what's in it?" Ginny asked.

"I'm not telling you," snapped Harriet.

"Then you leave me no choice." Hermione flounced out of the room, bushy hair bouncing with every step.

"What is going on?" The twins stood in the hallway, one watching Hermione leave and the other looking at Ginny and Harriet.

"I caught your sister and Hermione trying to break into my trunk," Harriet told them. "They think because I'm not letting them read a journal that it is some sort of Dark magic and is possessing me. I'm pretty sure Hermione's gone off to get your mother or someone to get me to hand it over."

"She's been acting differently since she came here!" Ginny defended.

"Different?" Fred asked.

"Really?" asked George.

"The only thing different we've seen is her frustration with the Order," said Fred.

"No different from ours, really," George added. "They don't tell us anything either."

"And it's not like she could know anything stuck with the Muggles," Fred continued.

"You can't blame her for being a bit testy," said George.

"To top it off, having people go through your belongings, now that can make a person sore," said Fred.

"You hate it when we go through your things, Ginny," George finished.

"But this is different!" Ginny whined.

"What is going on?" Sirius came down the hallway. "Hermione told Molly that Harriet is hiding a Dark artifact? I find that hard to believe."

"She won't show us the journal," Ginny complained, her face turning red. "She's been acting different since she came here. All these new clothes and fancy things! And she has this journal that she won't show Hermione and me!"

"So they decided to try to break into my trunk!" Harriet cut in. "I found them both trying to get it open and saying they should get the twins to open it for them. Said they didn't need much of an excuse to use magic and all they would have to say was that I couldn't get it open for some reason."

"We would never!" the twins gasped dramatically.

Sirius looked at Ginny and then to Harriet. "Harriet, go get your trunk."

Ginny looked smug.

"But Sirius –" Harriet began to protest.

"Get your trunk, Harriet," Sirius repeated gently.

Defeated, Harriet fetched her trunk and dragged it out into the hallway. Sirius took one end and led her down the hallway. He opened another door to reveal another bedroom.

"We cleaned this bedroom out the first week the Weasleys were here," said Sirius. "We were going to give it to Percy, but since Percy doesn't want to join the Order, it's been empty. Honestly I don't know why Molly insisted all the girls sleep in one room while Ron and the twins have separate rooms."

"No fair!" shouted Ginny. "Why does Harriet get her own room?"

"Because I say so," Sirius told her. "And it is my house. If I want my goddaughter to have her own room, who is your mum to say different?"

"Thanks, Sirius," said Harriet.

"You're welcome, pup," Sirius replied. "I'll see you in the morning."

Harriet took her trunk inside and closed the door. She could hear Ginny wailing about how unfair it was and was joined by Mrs. Weasley a few moments later over the journal and Harriet's new sleeping arrangements, Sirius shouting back at them.

Harriet waited until she was certain everyone was asleep before she opened the journal again and wrote Ophelia back, telling her about the Fidelius Charm that was active where she was. Ophelia and Ursula both responded that they understood and they had ways of getting around it if need be. Harriet went on to tell them what happened with Hermione and Ginny trying to get into her trunk because Hermione wanted to read the journal and Ginny trying to make the case because she had been possessed by Riddle's diary that Harriet was possessed by the journal. Ophelia wrote back to say they had indeed enchanted her trunk so people couldn't get in it without Harriet's permission. Ursula suggested to mess with them next time by having Sirius or one of the twins open it when they claimed she locked them out of it. Both told Harriet to keep them all posted and that they would see her at the hearing.

Harriet put the journal away and got into bed. She hoped tomorrow would be better, but knowing her luck, it was only going to get worse.

* * *

**Next chapter will be the trial and the four witches will be returning. I started writing the next chapter, but I do not have an estimated posting date. I want to be concentrating on _Quote the Pauper Forevermore_ and I have not been doing that. So maybe after I finish the next chapter of _Quote the Pauper Forevermore_, I'll come back to this story, which may be as early as next month if I apply myself. In the meantime, leave a review and tell me what you think and maybe go check out a few of my other stories.**


	3. Chapter 3

**And here we are again, another chapter. I will admit that I didn't even finish this chapter until a couple days ago. It is a bit shorter than the other ones, but if I had tried to make it longer, you probably wouldn't be getting a new chapter until Thanksgiving. Since I only finished this chapter a couple days ago, I barely have anything written for the next chapter and have no idea when it will be posted. However I did change up my fanfiction to-do list to put ****_Harriet Potter and the Four Witches_**** at the top of the list and ****_Quote the Pauper Forevermore _****will be left for later. The reason is that I see a closer end for ****_Harriet Potter and the Four Witches_**** in sight than I do for ****_Quote the Pauper Forevermore_****. If you want to know what's all going on, I've made a news section in my profile of what all I've got going on and I keep it up to date the best I can. Any time I post a new chapter for anything, I've been making note in my profile.**

**There is another scavenger hunt in this chapter and if I counted correctly, there are nine Easter eggs once again. The references once again can be from movies, television, gaming, fashion, music, or pop culture. Which means I must put the disclaimer up that I do not own ****_Harry Potter_**** or any of the movies, games, music, etc. that may be hiding in this chapter.**

* * *

The days leading up to Harriet's hearing were full of cleaning, arguments, and strange behavior. The drawing room itself took three days to clean with only the rattling writing desk remaining. Moody hadn't been back to the house to check it. Harriet was a bit glad for that because she was certain Mrs. Weasley would tell him about the journal and he would force her to give it to him. A dining room was infested with giant spiders. Ron ran out of the room and never came back until all the spiders were gone. The china bearing the Black crest and an old set of photographs in tarnished silver frames were tossed into a sack by Sirius. Kreacher kept appearing wherever they were and tried to take stuff back all the while muttering offensively. Sirius threated him with clothes, not that Kreacher was concerned with that. Sirius then threw him from the room, ignoring Hermione's shrieking protests.

The doorbell rang throughtout the day, causing Mrs. Black portrait to scream. Harriet and the others tried to eavesdrop, but Mrs. Weasley would also was send them off to do something before they could hear anything of interest. Snape showed up a few times, but Harriet avoided him. She only caught a glimpse of Professor McGonagall who looked very odd in a non-magi dress and coat.

Sometimes they didn't clean alone. Tonks joined them the afternoon when they found a murderous ghoul in an upstairs bathroom. Lupin, who was staying in the house but was usually gone all day to do whatever work for the Order, helped them fix a grandfather clock that spat heavy bolts at anyone who walked by it. Mundungus rescued Ron from some robes that had tried to strangle him when cleaning out an old wardrobe, redeeming himself in Mrs. Weasley's eyes.

The arguments over Harriet's new style and her own room continued. Mrs. Weasley insisted they needed the room Sirius gave her clear for an Order member who may need it and that Harriet was perfectly fine rooming with Hermione and Ginny. Sirius countered saying that if that was the case, the twins and Ron should share the same room since she was so concerned about space. The twins hearing this had immediately complained that they would never get any sleep because of Ron's snoring. Sirius also encouraged Harriet's new style. Mrs. Weasley had an absolute fit one morning when Harriet came down to breakfast wearing an emerald green lipstick that Sirius had picked out for her. Ron was mad at her for wearing a Slytherin color and joined in with Mrs. Weasley in telling her to take it off. Hermione looked at her disapprovingly while Ginny fumed for some reason, possibly out of jealousy that Harriet had the expansive selection of makeup. The twins were entertained by Harriet's rebellion against their mother and it only became funnier to them when they learned the shade name of the green lipstick was Serpent's Lick.

In addition to the arguments, Harriet noticed Mrs. Weasley was trying to get her and Ron to do things together whether it was cleaning, homework, or some other recreational activity. Ron sulked at the idea of doing homework and not being able to play Quidditch and always wanted to play Wizard's Chess, which would have been fine with Harriet if she wasn't so bad at it. Ron would suggest doing something else after he had beaten her soundly four or five times in a row to which Hermione would appear out of nowhere and suggest emphatically – demand – that they do their homework together. Her ploy to finally get to see Harriet's homework worked when Lupin volunteered to look their essays over. While Lupin was looking over what Ron had done so far, Hermione grabbed Harriet's essays and ran off with them to read, saying she was just checking for mistakes. Ron told Harriet to leave Hermione alone and her reading their homework was no big deal. When Harriet did finally have her essays looked over by Lupin, he complimented her and said if he was still teaching he would give her a high grade. Ron then dragged Harriet back to Wizard's Chess before finding some Exploding Snap cards.

During her stay at Grimmauld Place, Harriet's nightmares had changed. Instead of reliving the Triwizard Tournament, she began dreaming of strange corridors and locked doors. She would then wake up in a sweat with her scar prickling. She didn't tell anyone at Grimmauld Place. Instead, she wrote to the women of Number Two about them. They all said it had something to do with what Margarita sensed in her scar and they couldn't do much at the moment.

Dinner the night before the hearing had Harriet anxious. She worried the hearing was indeed just a formality and the Ministry would snap her wand and send her back to the Dursleys'. Well, she wouldn't go back there. She would stay with here with Sirius. Or maybe she would go with the women of Number Two. After all, Ursula had offered to teach her and none of them seemed concerned about having a wand.

Mrs. Weasley leaned over and said quietly, "Hermione offered to loan you something to wear for tomorrow morning and I want you to wash your hair tonight. A good first impression can work wonders."

Everyone stopped talking and turned to Harriet. "I already have clothes picked out for tomorrow. The women at Number Two took me shopping for a suit. Thanks though, Hermione."

"And you shouldn't wear any makeup," Mrs. Weasley went on.

Harriet made no comment on that because Forsythia had written her something similar using Margarita's journal, telling her a little concealer was okay and maybe a light dusting of blush, but no bold or bright colors.

"How am I getting there?" Harriet asked, trying not sound concerned.

"Arthur's taking you to work with him," Mrs. Weasley said gently.

Mr. Weasley smiled encouragingly from across the table. "You can wait in my office until it's time for the hearing."

Harriet looked over at Sirius and was about ask him if he could come with, but Mrs. Weasley answered before she could.

"Professor Dumbledore doesn't think it's a good idea for Sirius to go with you, and I must say I –"

"Think he's quite right," Sirius finished through clenched teeth.

Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips.

"When did Dumbledore tell you that?" Harriet asked Sirius.

"He came last night, when you were in bed," Mr. Weasley answered.

Sirius moodily stabbed at a potato on his plate. Harriet looked down at her own plate. So Dumbledore was here last night and didn't ask to see her. Did he have a plan to get her out of this? And if he did, why didn't he tell her? She couldn't help feeling like something bad was going to happen.

That night Harriet opened the journal to see four lines of texts.

_"We'll see you tomorrow."_ Purple looping letters – Ophelia.

_"Don't worry about a thing." _Black tall cursive – Ursula.

_"I'll be there to testify. Make sure you eat something in the morning." _Small letters, neat print in black – Margarita.

_"It will all be okay,"_ was the final line written in vine-like script in green ink – Forsythia.

At least those four had confidence the hearing would go well.

Harriet awoke half past five in the morning suddenly. She wasn't sure what woke her, but she was unable to fall back to sleep. She lay in bed for several minutes before she couldn't stand being still any longer. She jumped out of bed and put her glasses on. Harriet got dressed, putting on the black pant suit. She left her room to go down to the kitchen, trying not to think about the hearing and possibly being expelled.

She had expected the kitchen to be empty, but it was not. When she reached the door she heard voices on the other side. She pushed it open and saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Sirius, Lupin, and Tonks sitting there almost as though they were waiting for her. All were fully dressed except for Mrs. Weasley, who was wearing a purple quilted dressing gown. She leapt to her feet the moment Harriet entered.

"Breakfast," she said as she pulled out her wand and hurried over to the fire.

"Morning, Harriet," yawned Tonks. "Sleep all right?"

"Yeah," Harriet answered.

"I've been up all night," Tonks yawned again. "Come and sit down." She pulled out a chair, knocking over the one beside it in the process.

"What do you want, Harriet?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "Porridge? Muffins? Kippers? Bacon and eggs? Toast?"

Harriet didn't want to eat anything, but she remembered Margarita telling her to eat something. Toast sounded good, but she thought she should try to eat something more. "Toast, please. And maybe some porridge."

Lupin glanced at Harriet, then said to Tonks, "What were you saying about Scrimgeour?"

"Oh . . . yeah . . . well, we need to be a bit more careful, he's been asking Kingsley and me funny questions . . ."

Harriet tried to focus on their conversation, but she kept thinking about what would happen if the people at the hearing didn't believe her. Margarita said she would be at the hearing, but what if they didn't believe either of them? Everyone at Grimmauld Place believed it was a Patronus that had been cast because that was the only thing that could drive the Dementors away and that was what she was being charged with. They didn't believe her when she told them Margarita had cast a different spell that destroyed the Dementors entirely and Harriet herself had cast no magic at all. So if they didn't believe her, people who knew Harriet personally, how would she and Margarita be able to convince the people at the hearing?

Mrs. Weasley placed Harriet's breakfast in front of her and sat down on her other side and fussed over her clothes, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles of the jacket, fixing her shirt collar, and mumbling that she should have a skirt on instead of pants.

"I'll have to tell Dumbledore I can't do night duty tomorrow, I'm just too tired," Tonks said with another huge yawn.

"I'll cover for you," said Mr. Weasley. "I'm okay, I've got a report to finish anyway."

Mr. Weasley was not wearing wizard's robes, but a pair of pinstriped trousers and an old bomber jacket. He turned from Tonks to Harriet.

"How are you feeling?"

Harriet shrugged.

"It will be over soon," Mr. Weasley said. "In a few hours' time you'll be cleared."

Harriet said nothing.

"The hearing's on my floor, in Amelia Bones's office," Mr. Weasley went on. "She's Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and she's the one who'll be questioning you."

"Amelia Bones is okay, Harriet," said Tonks earnestly. "She's fair, she'll hear you out."

"We'll see," Harriet said quietly.

"Don't lose your temper," Sirius suddenly said. "Be polite and stick to the facts."

"The law is on your side," said Lupin quietly. "Even underage wizards are allowed to use magic in life-threatening situations."

The law may have been on Harriet's side, but would they believe her?

Mr. Weasley checked his watch and looked up at Harriet. "I think we'll go now. We're a bit early, but I think you'll be better off there than hanging around here."

Harriet nodded and got to her feet.

"I wish you would have chosen a skirt," Mrs. Weasley said, straightening Harriet's collar again.

"You'll be all right, Harriet," said Tonks, patting her on the arm and causing Mrs. Weasley to fix the imagined crease she had put in it.

"Good luck," said Lupin. "I'm sure it will be fine."

"And if it's not," said Sirius grimly, "I'll see to Amelia Bones for you."

Mrs. Weasley hugged Harriet. "We've got all our fingers crossed."

"Right," said Harriet. "Well, see you later then."

She followed Mr. Weasley upstairs and along the hall. She could hear Sirius's mother grunting in her sleep behind her curtains. Mr. Weasley unbolted the door and they stepped out into the cold, gray dawn.

"You don't normally walk to work, do you?" Harriet asked them as they walked down the sidewalk.

"No, I usually Apparate," he replied, "but I think it's best we arrive in a thoroughly non-magical fashion. Makes a better impression, given what you're being disciplined for."

Mr. Weasley kept his hand inside his jacket as they walked. Harriet knew it was clenched around his wand. The streets were empty, but when they reached the miserable little Underground station it was already full of morning commuters. Like always when Mr. Weasley was in close proximity to non-magi going about their daily business, he had a hard time containing his enthusiasm. He was absolutely fascinated by the automatic ticket machines even though they were out of order. They bought their tickets from a sleepy guard, Harriet handling the transaction as Mr. Weasley was not very good with non-magi money. Five minutes later they were boarding an Underground train that was headed for the center of London. Mr. Weasley kept anxiously checking and rechecking the Underground map above the windows. He would keep telling her how many stops they needed to go before getting off.

They got off in the very heart of London amidst the many businessmen. They went up the escalator, through the ticket barrier, and emerged onto a broad street lined with many large, impressive buildings and already packed with traffic.

"Where are we?" Mr. Weasley asked.

Harriet panicked thinking they got off at the wrong stop.

"Ah yes, this way," said Mr. Weasley. He led them down a side road. "Sorry, but I never come by train and it all looks rather different from a Muggle perspective. As a matter of fact I've never even used the visitor's entrance before."

The farther they walked, the smaller and less impressive the buildings became until they came to a street that had a few shabby offices, a pub, and an overflowing dumpster. Harriet had expected the Ministry of Magic to have a much nicer location than this.

"Here we are," said Mr. Weasley, pointing to an old red phone booth that was missing several panes of glass and stood next to a wall that completely covered with graffiti. "After you, Harriet."

He opened the phone booth door for her.

Harriet stepped inside and Mr. Weasley followed her in and shut the door. She was pressed up against the crookedly hanging phone. Mr. Weasley reached passed her and for the receiver.

"Mr. Weasley, I'm pretty sure it's not going to work," she said.

"No, no, I'm sure it's fine," said Mr. Weasley, holding the receiver up and examining the dial. He muttered as he dialed in five numbers.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic," said a cool female voice. It came from inside the booth, not the receiver. "Please state your name and business."

Mr. Weasley wasn't sure whether he should talk into the receiver or not. Instead he compromised by putting the mouthpiece to his ear. "Arthur Weasley, Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, here to escort Harriet Potter, who has been asked to attend a disciplinary hearing."

Asked? Harriet had to fight back a bitter laugh. She had been ordered to go so they could appear to consider whether or not to expel her and snap her wand.

"Thank you," said the voice. "Visitor, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes."

There was a click and rattle. Harriet saw something slide out of the returned coin chute. It was a square silver badge that read _Harriet Potter, Disciplinary Hearing_. Harriet pinned it to her suit jacket.

"Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium," the voice informed.

The phone booth shuddered and began sinking into the ground. Harriet realized it was basically an elevator. They sank beneath the surface, plunging everything into darkness. A minute later, a sliver of light appeared at their feet and grew as they continued to be lowered. Then they came to a stop.

"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day," said the voice.

The door to the phone booth opened and Mr. Weasley stepped out, followed by Harriet. They were standing at one end of a very long and grand hall. The floor was dark hardwood that was highly polished, the ceiling was a peacock blue with golden symbols that gleamed and constantly moved and changed. The walls on each side were paneled in shiny dark wood and had many gilded fireplaces set into them. Every few moments a wizard or witch would emerge from the fireplaces on one side while on the other were short lines of wizards waiting to depart. Halfway down the hall was a fountain of a group of golden statues standing in the middle of the pool. They were larger than life-size, the tallest of them being a noble-looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a beautiful witch in a similar pose, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf. The centaur, goblin, and house-elf were looking up at the wizard and witch in adoration. Jets of water shot out of both wands, the arrow the centaur was holding, the goblin's pointed hat, and the tips of the house-elf's ears. At the other end of the hall was a set of golden gates where most of the wizards were walking to.

"This way," said Mr. Weasley.

They joined the crowd, winding their way between Ministry workers. As they walked passed the fountain, Harriet noticed the silver Sickles and bronze Knuts glinting in the water. There was a small smudged sign beside it that read:

_All proceeds from the Fountain of Magical Brethren will be given to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries_

"Over here, Harriet," said Mr. Weasley. He directed her to the left of the golden gates to a desk with a sign above it saying SECURITY. A badly shaven wizard in peacock-blue robes looked up as they approached and put down his _Daily Prophet_.

"I'm escorting a visitor," said Mr. Weasley, gesturing toward Harriet.

"Step over here," said the wizard in a bored tone.

Harriet came closer and the wizard held out a long golden rod similar to a car antenna and passed it up and down and affront and back.

"Wand," he grunted at Harriet, putting the golden rod down and holding out his hand.

Harriet reluctantly handed her wand over. The wizard dropped it onto what looked like a meat scale. It vibrated and a strip of parchment came out of the slit in the base. The wizard tore it off read the writing on it.

"Eleven inches, phoenix-feather core, been in use four years. That correct?"

"Yes," she said, nervous.

The wizard handed Harriet her wand back and stuck the parchment on a small brass spike. Mr. Weasley quickly steered her away from the desk before the wizard could notice her badge and scar.

They went through the gates and got on an elevator to go up to level two where they got off. Harriet noticed the windows and was confused. She thought they were still underground. Mr. Weasley told her the windows were enchanted and that the maintenance department decided on what weather was viewed, adding that they made them show hurricanes when they wanted a pay raise.

She noticed Kingsley at one of the cubicles talking to a few other wizards. He and Mr. Weasley both said hello and acted like they barely knew each other. They went over to Kingsley's desk. The walls of his cubicle were covered in pictures and newspaper clippings of Sirius Black. Kingsley told Mr. Weasley that he needed as much information on flying non-magi vehicle sightings over the last year and that Sirius was using his motorcycle to get around. Kingsley then discreetly handed Harriet a magazine and whispering to give it to Sirius. After a few more staged words and some whispers, Mr. Weasley ushered Harriet out of the room and down a long corridor.

The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office was not much bigger than a broom closet with the overflowing filing cabinets and two desks crammed inside. The wall behind one desk was covered in pictures of cars, mailboxes, and a diagram of how to wire a plug. The desk was covered in piles of paperwork along with a hiccupping toaster, a pair of leather gloves that twiddled their thumbs and a photograph of the Weasley family, Percy noticeably absent.

Mr. Weasley apologized for not having a window and made a comment about the magazine Kingsley passed Harriet, an issue of _The Quibbler_. They weren't in the office long before a memo flew through the air and landed next to the hiccupping toaster. Mr. Weasley looked at it and sighed in annoyance about a regurgitating public toilet.

A stooped old wizard came hurrying into the room. "Arthur, thank goodness!" he panted. "I didn't know what to do for the best, whether to wait here for you or not, I've just sent an owl to your home but you've obviously missed it – an urgent message came ten minutes ago –"

"I know about the regurgitating toilet," said Mr. Weasley.

"No, no, it's not about the toilet, it's the Potter girl's hearing – they've changed the time and venue – it starts at eight o'clock now and it's down in old Courtroom Ten –"

"Down in old – but they told me – Merlin's beard!" Mr. Weasley looked at his watch, let out a yelp, and leapt from his chair. "Quick, Harriet, we should have been there five minutes ago!"

The old wizard had to press himself against the filing cabinets as Mr. Weasley left the office in run with Harriet on his heels. They raced for the elevators, drawing people's attention as they ran by. They got on an elevator and Mr. Weasley punched the down button furiously, cursing when it wasn't moving fast enough for him.

Harriet was in a panic. Margarita was to speak in her defense and she doubted that she knew about the change to time and place. Harriet wished she had brought the journal with her so she could tell the women of Number Two, but even if she did they would probably arrive too late to do anything.

"Those courtrooms haven't been used in years," Mr. Weasley told her. "I can't think why they're doing it down there – unless – but no . . ."

Harriet waited for Mr. Weasley to elaborate, but he didn't.

When the female voice announced the floor as the Department of Mysteries, Mr. Weasley pulled Harriet out of the lift and ran. Harriet noticed there were no doors except for one plain black door at the very end of the corridor, but instead of going through the door, Mr. Weasley pulled her to the side and to an opening to a flight of stairs.

"The lift doesn't even come down this far . . . why they're doing it down there . . ."

At the bottom of the steps they ran along yet another corridor. This one bore a great resemblance to the corridor that led to the dungeons at Hogwarts. The doors they passed here were heavy wooden ones with iron bolts and keyholes. They came to a halt outside of a grimy dark door with an immense iron lock.

"Go on," Mr. Weasley panted, pointing his thumb at the door. "Get in there."

Harriet looked at him with wide eyes. "Aren't you coming with?"

"No, no, I'm not allowed. Good luck!"

Harriet swallowed hard and turned to the door. Gathering her courage, she opened the door and stepped inside the courtroom.

The courtroom was practically a dungeon. The walls were dark stone and dimly lit with torches. On either side of the room were empty benches and ahead in the highest benches were wizards and witches wearing plum robes with an elaborately worked silver W on the left side of their chests. They had all been talking until the door closed behind Harriet. They all turned to her with grim expressions, though a few looked curious.

"You're late," said a cold male voice.

"Sorry," Harriet said nervously. "I didn't know the time had changed."

"That's not the Wizengamot's fault," said the voice. "An owl was sent to you this morning. Take your seat."

The only seat for her to take was a chair in the center of the room, chains covering the arms. Harriet knew this chair, knew this room in fact, having seen it in Dumbledore's Pensive last year. She had seen those chains come to life and bind whoever sat in that chair.

Harriet cringed at how loudly her footsteps echoed on the stone floor as she walked to the chair. She gingerly sat down, expecting the chains to wrap around her wrists. They didn't, but they did clink menacingly. She then looked up at the people seated in the benches above her. There were about fifty of them and all were staring at her. In the very middle of the front row was Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. The portly man had forgone his lime green bowler hat and indulgent smiles he wore the last time Harriet spoke to him. Sitting to Fudge's left was a broad, square jawed witch with short gray hair wearing a monocle and looking forbidding. On Fudge's right was another witch, but she sat back in a way that her face was covered in shadow.

"Very well," said Fudge. "The accused being present – finally – let us begin. Are you ready?" he called down the row.

"Yes, sir," said an eager voice Harriet knew well. Percy Weasley was sitting at the very end of the front bench. Harriet looked at him, expecting some sign of recognition, but Percy didn't look up from the parchment he was looking at. He gave a quick adjustment to his horn-rimmed glasses, quill in hand.

"Disciplinary hearing of the twelfth of August," said Fudge in a resounding voice, Percy immediately beginning to take notes, "into offenses committed under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and the International Statute of Secrecy by Harriet Jasmine Potter, resident at Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey."

Harriet's heart sank. The way Fudge was listing things off, it made it sound like this was a criminal trial and not a hearing. Worse was that there was no one here to help her out of this. She would have to hope for the best.

"Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic; Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Court Scribe, Percy Ignatius Weasley –"

The courtroom door was thrown open.

"Legal counsel for the defense," a strong female voice announced from the back of the room, "Ophelia Claudette Trouillefou, Ursula Josephine Wheeler, and Forsythia Historia Ackerman-Bodt."

Harriet turned around the chair to see Ophelia crossing the room with Ursula and Forsythia in tow. All three were dressed in black designer skirt suits, their Christian Louboutin heels clicking on the floor as they walked to the middle of the room. They had their hair pulled back in a bun and carried a leather briefcase and colorful handbag that matched the dress shirt they wore under their suit jacket: bold purple for Ophelia, graphite gray for Ursula, and vanilla beige for Forsythia. Their makeup was minimal, especially considering the amount Harriet had seen Ophelia and Ursula wear, but still had personality with strong nude lips and blended matte shadows. They walked like they owned the room and had an aura that dared anyone to mess with them.

The members of the Wizengamot began to murmur. All eyes were on the three women who had burst into the room. Some were annoyed, others confused, and a few looked outraged at the interruption.

"What is the meaning of this?" Fudge demanded.

"This is us correcting a breach of law," said Ophelia, walking passed Harriet. "You are questioning my client without counsel present. In addition, you are questioning a minor without a guardian present. I would also like to add for the record that I am quite displeased with the members of this disciplinary committee because we only received the news of the change of time and place two minutes after this 'hearing' was due to start." She gazed around the room, clearly unimpressed with what she saw.

Meanwhile, Ursula and Forsythia had Harriet stand up and Ursula was shaking her hand in greeting. Harriet felt a prick in her palm and noticed the silver ring Ursula wore on her hand. Forsythia then took her place and shook her hand.

"Just something for the nerves," Forsythia whispered.

"I feel a lot better now that you're here," Harriet whispered back.

"It was by foresight that we had arrived at the Ministry early or else we would have received the message much later," Ophelia went on, keeping the Wizengamot's attention on her. "Now are we going to have a proper disciplinary hearing or shall I begin filing the paperwork to sue you for trying to railroad a fifteen year old girl to silence her?"

Fudge, who had been becoming increasingly flustered with either Ophelia's words or her looks – while conservatively dressed, it did little to hide her figure – sputtered out, "Well – I suppose we'll need more chairs – I – Weasley, could you –?"

"No need," said Ophelia. She turned to Ursula. "Ms. Wheeler?"

Ursula turned around and spread her arms. A long wooden table appeared along with four chairs. The Wizengamot broke out in murmurs of awe and fear.

Ursula then turned to Ophelia. "Do you have to call me that?" she hissed quietly to Ophelia.

"You chose the alias," Ophelia whispered back.

"I know, but I feel like a dog when you call me that."

"Stop it. You sound like him when you whine like that."

"And you sound like a certain arrogant dragon lover."

"Jealous?"

Forsythia got their attention. "Ladies, another time. Poor Harriet probably thinks she's doomed the way you're fighting."

Harriet would have been anxious if whatever Ursula had given her hadn't started to take effect.

"It'll be fine," Ophelia assured Harriet. "Answer simply and truthfully. We'll take care of the rest."

Harriet sat back down in the chair while the three women sat behind the table.

Only when Fudge started speaking again did the Wizengamot settle down. "Yes. Well, then. So. The charges. Yes."

He shuffled his notes, trying to compose himself. He then extracted a piece of parchment from the pile and began to read it aloud. "The charges against the accused are as follows: That she did knowingly, deliberately, and in full awareness of the illegality of her actions, having received a previous written warning from the Ministry of Magic on a similar charge, produce a Patronus Charm in a Muggle-inhabited area, in the presence of a Muggle, on August the second at twenty-three minutes past nine, which constitutes an offense under paragraph C of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, and also under section thirteen of the International Confederation of Wizards' Statute of Secrecy.

"You are Harriet Jasmine Potter, of Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey?" Fudge asked, glaring at her over the top of his parchment.

"Yes," she responded, feeling calmer by the second.

"You received an official warning from the Ministry for using illegal magic three years ago, did you not?"

"Yes."

"And yet your conjured a Patronus on the night of the second of August?" said Fudge.

"No."

Fudge's glare hardened. "No?" he drawled. "You deny casting a Patronus on the night of the second of August?"

"I didn't cast one that night," said Harriet.

The Minister puffed up. "Lying will not help you here, Miss Potter. I'll ask once more: Did you cast a Patronus on the night of the second of August? Think carefully before you answer."

Think carefully before you answer? Fudge wanted her to confess to something she hadn't done?

Ophelia stood up. "I believe my client has stated quite plainly that she did not cast a Patronus Charm on the night of the second of August."

"Well someone cast the Patronus Charm!" exploded Fudge. "The Improper Use of Magic Office detected it!"

"Then perhaps instead of repeatedly asking the same question to my client, you should ask her what happened the night of the second of August," said Ophelia.

"Very well," fumed Fudge. "What happened that night?"

Harriet took a breath, whatever Ursula had given her having taken full effect and settling her nerves and keeping her temper in check. "I was down at the playground, sitting on the swing. My cousin, Dudley, and his friends came up to me. He started mocking me for talking in my sleep. I told him to stop, but he just kept going on, his friends laughing."

"That's when you cast the Patronus?" Fudge asked eagerly.

"No, that's when Margarita, who lives next door, showed up. She runs in the mornings and the evenings and she ran by the playground and saw us. She wanted to know what was going on and told all of us to go home."

Sure there was a bit more to the story, but it wasn't important that the Wizengamot knew every detail about why she hadn't been sleeping and how Dudley tormented her with more than just words.

"That's when everything went cold and everything started to go dark," said Harriet. "Margarita told us all to go home again and Dudley's friends ran off. After that, I started to feel like the happiness was sucked out of me. I knew there was a Dementor nearby."

"A Dementor?" asked Madam Bones, her monocle looking like it was about to fall out.

"There were actually two Dementors," Harriet went on. "Dudley could feel the effects, too. He started yelling at me, thinking I was doing it. I went for my wand, but Dudley knocked me down and ran off and I dropped my wand. He was running right at it. I tried to warn him, but he wouldn't listen. The Dementor grabbed Dudley. That's when Margarita did something. I've never seen a spell like it before. It was like a ball of light and it burned the Dementors into ash. After that, we checked Dudley to see if he was okay and she helped me get him back home."

"Dementors in Little Whinging?" Madame Bones said in a greatly surprised tone. "I don't understand –"

"Don't you see, Amelia?" said Fudge with a very unpleasant smirk. "Yes, yes, I thought we'd be hearing something like this. Let me explain. She's been thinking it through and decided Dementors would make a very nice little cover story, very nice indeed. Muggles can't see Dementors, can they, girl? Highly convenient, highly convenient . . . so it's just your word and no witnesses . . ."

"There is a witness apart from Dudley Dursley," said Ophelia.

"We haven't got time to listen to more taradiddles, I'm afraid, Miss Trouillefou," said Fudge impatiently. "I want this dealt with quickly –"

"Under the Wizengamot Charter of Rights, the accused has the right to present witnesses for his or her case," said Ophelia. "Or are you denying my client her rights?"

"Oh, very well, very well," Fudge snapped. "Where is this person?"

"Waiting outside to be called upon," Ophelia answered. "Ms. Ackerman-Bodt, if you would."

Forsythia began to stand from her seat, but Fudge stopped her. "No – Weasley, you go," he barked at Percy.

Percy hurried down the stone steps from the judge's balcony and passed Harriet and the women without a glance. He returned a moment later with Margarita. Like the other women, her makeup was minimal and she had her hair in a bun, however she wore a pant suit and sensible heels and did not carry a handbag. She too exuded the aura of not to be messed with.

Harriet got up from the chair and hurried to sit behind the desk with the other three women. Margarita took Harriet's place and looked up at the Wizengamot.

"Full name?" Fudge said loudly.

"Dr. Margarita Laura Ruby Victoriano," she answered.

"Who are you exactly?" Fudge went on in a bored and lofty voice.

"I am Harriet Potter's neighbor. I live in the house next to hers."

"We have no record of any witch or wizard living in Little Whining other than Harriet Potter," Madame Bones cut in. "That situation has always been closely monitored, given . . . given past events."

"You wouldn't have record of me," said Margarita. "I do not fall within your parameters of being a witch or wizard, hence no record."

Mutters broke out in the Wizengamot.

"Not a witch?" asked Fudge. "Then what are you?"

"I am a magic user," said Margarita.

"Ms. Victoriano –" Fudge started.

"Doctor," Margarita corrected.

"Excuse me?"

"It is doctor," said Margarita. "I worked my way through magical and non-magical medical schools. My title is doctor."

"Very well, Dr. Victoriano. Can you see Dementors?"

"Yes," she responded.

"What is your story?" asked Fudge.

"I was going for my evening run," said Margarita. "I went by the playground and saw Miss Potter and a group of boys. They didn't seem to be pleasant so I went up to them to see what the problem was. I told them all to go home. They didn't. That's when the streetlights went out and it got cold. I told them again to go home and the boys ran off, leaving Miss Potter and her cousin, Dudley Dursley, behind. Dudley accused Miss Potter of doing magic and hit her. She dropped her wand and lost her glasses. He ran off and ended up running at the Dementor that came swooping in. I used a banishing spell that works on low level demons. It was quite effective in the Dementor. There was a second Dementor that tried to attack Miss Potter from behind. I took care of it in the same fashion. We then checked on Dudley and carried him back to his house. I gave him an examination with Mr. and Mrs. Dursley present, prescribed rest and chocolate, and went home."

"What did the Dementors look like?" asked Madame Bones.

"Ragged robed and ghostly. Their hands were scabby," answered Margarita.

"And the banishing spell you used?" Madame Bones questioned.

"Like I said, it is used for low level demons," said Margarita.

"And where did you learn this spell, Dr. Victoriano?" asked Madame Bones.

"I'm friends with someone dating an exorcist," relied Margarita. "He taught us all out to defend ourselves."

"Demons aren't the only thing he can exorcise," Ursula whispered suggestively.

Forsythia shot her a disapproving look.

"That's what you saw, is it?" Fudge asked aggressively.

Margarita didn't let his tone faze her. "That is what happened," she stated coolly.

"Very well," said Fudge. "You may go."

Margarita rose from the chair and left the courtroom.

"Not a very convincing witness," Fudge said loftily.

"I can't imagine why she would say they were there if they weren't –" Madame Bones began.

"But Dementors wandering into a Muggle suburb and just happening to come across a witch?" Fudge snorted. "Preposterous! The Dementors remain in place in Azkaban and are doing everything we ask them to."

Ursula stood up. "Then it appears someone sent them to Little Whinging."

The witch sitting on Fudge's right twitched, but everyone else was still and quiet.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" asked Fudge icily.

"You stated so yourself," said Ursula. "The Dementors are at Azkaban and do what you ask them to. It stands to reason someone 'asked' them to go to Little Whinging to attack my client."

"I think we might have a record of it if someone had ordered a pair of Dementors to go strolling through Little Whinging," barked Fudge.

"Unless they were ordered to do so off the books," Ursula went on. "So if what you say is true about the Dementors obeying the Ministry's every order, then the question is: Who would benefit from my client's death?"

Complete silence greeted Ursula's question.

The witch sitting on Fudge's right leaned forward so that Harriet saw her for the first time. She resembled a giant toad. She was squat with a broad, flabby face, large, round eyes that protruded slightly, a wide, slack mouth, and an almost nonexistent neck. The black velvet bow in her short, curly hair looked like a giant fly that would get caught on a long sticky tongue if she opened her mouth.

"The Chair recognizes Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister," said Fudge.

"Under indeed," Ophelia muttered without moving her lips.

"With the curtains closed and the lights off," Ursula added quietly as she sat down.

Instead of the expectant croak, the witch spoke in a fluttery, girlish, high-pitched voice. "I'm sure I must have misunderstood you, Ms. Wheeler," she simpered. "So silly of me. But it sounded like for a teensy moment as though you were suggesting that the Ministry of Magic had ordered an attack on this girl?"

Ophelia rose. "If someone from the Ministry didn't send the Dementors, then there are some outside of the Ministry's control."

"There are no Dementors outside Ministry control!" snapped Fudge, his face turning red. "And I would remind everybody that the behavior of these Dementors, if indeed they are not figments of this girl's imagination, is not the subject of this hearing! We are here to examine Harriet Potter's offenses under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery!"

"Which we heard from the witness, Dr. Victoriano, that it was not my client who cast any sort of magic that night, but her in order to protect two teenagers from the Dementors that are supposedly under Ministry control," said Ophelia. "If you would like to question her more thoroughly, call Dr. Victoriano back to do so."

"I want this over with today!" raged Fudge.

Forsythia stood up. "Then perhaps I can offer a suggestion."

"And that would be?" Fudge snapped.

"Priori Incantatem," said Forsythia. "My client hasn't used her wand since she allegedly cast the Patronus. By using Priori Incantatem, it will reveal the last spell she used."

"Would that method satisfy the committee?" asked Ophelia.

Fudge was silent for a beat. "Very well. Miss Potter, bring your wand to me."

Harriet began to rise, but was stopped by Ursula.

"I request that Madame Bones be the one to cast the spell," said Ophelia.

"Fine!" barked Fudge. "Let's just get this over with."

Ursula released Harriet and Harriet went up to Madame Bones and handed her her wand. Madame Bones took out her wand and cast the spell.

"The last spell cast by this wand was a Summoning Charm, not a Patronus," Madame Bones announced. "You may return to your seat, Miss Potter."

Harriet hurried back to the table.

"She could have easily cast another spell to hide the fact she cast the Patronus," argued Fudge.

"Then why was the Improper Use of Magic Office was not notified?" asked Ophelia. "If that is the case, there is clearly something wrong with the system. Either it is broken and misreporting magical acts or . . . " She let her gaze pan around the Wizengamot. "Or someone is tampering with it so it targets an individual in the vicinity, regardless of what spell was cast or who cast it."

Fudge exploded. "This is another one of the girl's cock-and-bull stories that she's come out with while trying to cover up her flagrant misuse of magic out of school! Are you aware of the Hover Charm she used three years ago? She blew up her aunt, for God's sake! And I haven't even started on what she gets up to at school!"

"My client received a warning for the Hover Charm," said Ophelia over Fudge's raving. "No charges were brought in regards of the incident with her aunt. Also, the Ministry has no authority to punish students for misdemeanors at school – that is left in the hands of the teachers."

"Oho!" said Fudge. "Not our business what she does at school, eh? You think so?"

"The Ministry does not have the power to expel students, nor do they have the right to confiscate wands until the accused is charged properly," stated Ophelia. "It seems that in your rush to charge my client, you have overlooked numerous laws yourself."

"Laws can be changed," Fudge snarled at her.

"But until then, you have to enforce the laws on the books," Ophelia said, keeping her cool. "Now in regards to the events of the night of the second of August, we have presented our defense and we await the committee's decision."

They all sat down and stared at Fudge.

The Wizengamot turned to each other and began whispering urgently.

"Those in favor of clearing the accused of all charges?" said Madame Bones in a booming voice.

Harriet looked up and quickly counted hands. There were many in the air, more than half.

"And those in favor of conviction?" Madame Bones asked.

Fudge raised his hand along with about a half dozen others including the toad-looking witch.

Fudge glanced around at all of them, looking like he had something stuck in his throat. "Very well," he said in suppressed rage. "Cleared of all charges."

With that, the Wizengamot got to their feet and started talking and packing their papers away. Harriet let out a sigh of relief and looked at the three women.

"I'm so glad you made it," she said. "It's a good thing you got the time change."

"They never sent us one," said Ursula.

Harriet frowned. "Then how did you know?"

"Jason," answered Forsythia. "He had a precognitive vision last night that you may need us earlier than expected."

"Ruined a perfectly intimate moment," complained Ophelia.

"Thank him when you see him next," said Harriet. "And thank you for being here."

"Not a problem," said Ophelia. "We told you we're here to help you. Now come on. We can go for second breakfast. We have a lot to tell you."

"We've been doing a little investigating while you were gone," said Ursula. "We found a few things you need to know about."

They gathered up their briefcases and handbags. Ursula banged twice on the tabletop with both hands and the table and chairs disappeared. They walked out of the courtroom to find Mr. Weasley, Margarita, and Dumbledore. The latter two were having a stare down while Mr. Weasley looked like he was about to go for his wand and jinx Margarita.

Mr. Weasley noticed Harriet. "Harriet, did they –"

"Cleared of all charges," Harriet told him.

Dumbledore turned from Margarita to Harriet. "My dear girl, I am very happy for you. However I am a bit disappointed that you sought legal counsel. I would have defended you. I was the one to get you the hearing." He put off his grandfatherly aura, but Harriet noticed that he was actively avoiding eye contact with her.

"We had everything under control," said Ophelia.

Dumbledore looked at her, his eyes twinkling. "Yes, you should be very proud. Excellent job." There was some condescension in his tone.

Mr. Weasley began to babble, "Well, of course, they couldn't have found you guilty, not on the the evidence, but even so, I can't pretend I wasn't -"

The doors to the courtroom opened and the Wizengamot filed out.

"Merlin's beard," Mr. Weasley said, looking at them, "you were tried by the full court?"

"Yes, she was," said Ophelia.

A few wizards and witches greeted Mr. Weasley and Dumbledore with quick nod while Madame Bones said, "Good morning, Arthur, Professor Dumbledore," whereas the majority of the members completely ignored them. Fudge and the toad-looking witch were almost the last to leave. Fudge acted as if they didn't exist, but the witch looked at Harriet appraisingly as she passed. The last to leave was Percy. Like Fudge, he ignored them, marching passed them clutching a large roll of parchment and a handful of spare quills, his back rigid and his nose up in the air. Harriet noticed the lines around Mr. Weasley's mouth tighten, but other than that he gave no sign he noticed his son.

"Come, Harriet," said Dumbledore. "Arthur will take you back to the house."

Mr. Weasley smiled. "I'll take you straight back so you can tell the others the good news. I'll drop you off on the way to that toilet in Bethnal Green."

"Actually we were about to take Harriet out to breakfast in celebration," said Ophelia, putting her hand on Harriet's shoulder.

"How generous of you," said Dumbledore, "but I'm afraid that Harriet still has some homework to do before she returns to Hogwarts."

Ophelia gently drew Harriet back behind her. "She has at least two weeks before term starts. Surely she can spare a morning to celebrate."

"I must insist," Dumbledore said. "It is for her safety."

"She'll be fine with us," countered Ophelia.

Forsythia leaned over to whisper in Harriet's ear. "Get your godfather to invite us."

"What?" Harriet asked.

"He needs to say, 'I, Sirius Black, as the master of - insert house address - invite Ophelia, Ursula, Margarita, and Forsythia of Number Two, Privet Drive into my home.' We'll come."

"But the spell on the house," started Harriet.

"It'll circumvent the spell," Forsythia said quickly.

"Arthur, take her back to the house," Dumbledore ordered, perturbed. He quickly walked away without another word or a glance at Harriet.

Harriet had missed what Ophelia had said to Dumbledore since she was listening to Forsythia, but whatever it was had irritated Dumbledore and left Ophelia with a smug expression.

Mr. Weasley took Harriet by the arm and pulled her away from Forsythia and steered her up the stairs.

"So what about the toilet?" Harriet asked, aware that the four women were following behind them.

"Oh, it's a simple enough anti-jinx," Mr. Weasley told her as they climbed the stairs with the women of Number Two following behind them, "but it's not so much having to repair the damage, it's more the attitude behind the vandalism. Muggle-baiting might strike wizards as funny, but it's an expression of something much deeper and nastier and I for one –"

Mr. Weasley stopped mid-sentence. They had just exited the stairs to the ninth-level corridor. Cornelius Fudge was standing just a few feet away, speaking quietly to a tall man in expensive robes with sleek blonde hair and a pointed, pale face.

The second man turned at the sound of their footsteps. He too broke off mid-conversation, his cold gray eyes narrowed and fixed upon Harriet's face.

"Well, well, well . . . Patronus Potter," said Lucius Malfoy coolly.

Harriet froze. The last time she had seen those cool gray eyes had been through the slits of a Death Eater's hood. She could not believe that Lucius Malfoy would look at her after what had happened in the graveyard or even be in the Ministry talking to Fudge after she told Fudge he was a Death Eater just weeks ago.

"The Minister was just telling me about your lucky escape, Potter," Mr. Malfoy drawled. "Quite astonishing, the way you continue to wriggle out of very tight holes . . . Snakelike, in fact . . ."

Mr. Weasley gripped Harriet's shoulder to keep her from retaliating.

Mr. Malfoy then turned to Mr. Weasley. "And Arthur Weasley too! What are you doing here, Arthur?"

"I work here," Mr. Weasley replied shortly.

"Not here, surely?" Mr. Malfoy raised his brows and glanced at the door over behind Mr. Weasley. "I thought you were up on the second floor. Don't you do something that involves sneaking Muggle artifacts home and bewitching them?"

"No," was Mr. Weasley's curt response. His fingers dug into Harriet's shoulder.

Mr. Malfoy then turned his attention to the four women. "Or have you been given the job of Ministry tour guide, Arthur?"

Ophelia stepped around Mr. Weasley and Harriet. "Ophelia Trouillefou. I was part of Miss Potter's defense counsel. And in case the Minister has failed to inform you, it was proven that my client did not cast a Patronus or any magic in fact."

Mr. Malfoy looked down his nose at Ophelia, clearly noting her American accent. "Trouillefou? I can't say I am familiar with that name. But then I don't pay much attention to the colonies."

"It doesn't surprise me," said Ophelia. "Most wizards here are too preoccupied with what's happening on their island."

"It seems you do well for yourself, despite your foreign background," Mr. Malfoy went on, clearly trying to anger one of them.

"I may be a Yank, but I know more than just how to order in restaurants and spend a man's money," Ophelia countered with a smile.

"And here you are now as a part of the Girl-Who-Lived's legal counsel," said Mr. Malfoy. "Well, you'll certainly have your work cut out for you. Potter has a penchant for rule breaking. One day she won't be able to get out of trouble, even with help."

"With victory comes payment." Ophelia showed her purse off. "And I never lose. I just choose not to win."

Ursula tapped Ophelia on the shoulder. "As much as I would like to stand here and chat all day, we do have other matters to attend to."

"That we do," said Ophelia. "Gentlemen."

Mr. Malfoy smoothed his robes, something clinking in his pocket as he did so. "As do we. Shall we go up to your office, then, Minister?"

"Certainly," said Fudge, turning his back on the group. "This way, Lucius."

They walked away, speaking in low tones as they got in the elevator.

"If they had business together, why were they down here?" Harriet wanted to know.

"Trying to sneak down to the courtroom, if you ask me," said Mr. Weasley. He looked warily at the four women. "Trying to find out if you were expelled or not."

They started walking to the elevator.

"He must be so disappointed," said Ursula.

Harriet looked at Ophelia. "That was brilliant."

"That was nothing," Ophelia said with a shrug. "You should see me when I really start in."

They got on the elevator together.

"There is one thing I don't get," said Harriet.

"What's that?" asked Ophelia.

"Why did you show off your purse to him like that?" asked Harriet.

Both Ophelia and Ursula laughed.

"Cut it out, you two," Forsythia scolded. "It's not like she knows."

"Those three are carrying around purses that cost more than a new car," said Margarita. "Each."

Harriet and Mr. Weasley's eyes widened in shock.

"For a purse?" squeaked Harriet.

"What?" Ophelia said innocently. "I like crocodile and I like purple. The palladium is just a nice touch."

"We have expensive tastes," Ursula said.

"In my defense, mine was a gift," said Forsythia.

"And you deserved it," Ophelia agreed. "You spent all night as that shark's arm candy. I was surprised that you didn't lose your hearing from his yelling."

"He can be quiet when he wants to be," said Forsythia. "I was more worried about the prince throwing his knives at me for the fun of it. Nee-san was the one who picked the bag out for me. He originally wanted to give me a bright blue, but I asked for a neutral color."

"How did that situation happen anyway?" asked Ursula.

"I'm not sure," said Forsythia. "I think I saw him being harassed by other women and thought that I should go save him."

"Paid off," said Ophelia.

Harriet shook her head angrily. "I don't get it."

"Get what?" asked Forsythia.

"I told Fudge about Malfoy being a Death Eater weeks ago," Harriet said. "What private business could they have?"

"Probably bribes going by the sound of Malfoy's pockets," said Ophelia. "People like Fudge need to kiss ass to stay in power. Malfoy has the power to keep Fudge in his position. So Malfoy pays Fudge to his bidding and in return he makes sure Fudge remains Minister."

The elevator doors opened to let them out.

"I guess this is where we part ways," Ursula said to Harriet. "Are you sure you don't want to come to brunch with us?"

"We really need to go," Mr. Weasley insisted, steering Harriet out of the elevator. "It was very nice to meet you. Thank you very much for your help."

Mr. Weasley practically ran across the atrium with Harriet and away from the women of Number Two. When they reached the fountain, Harriet looked pack to see the women were already gone. Mr. Weasley continued to hustle her to the visitor's entrance.

"I'm so glad that is over," said Mr. Weasley when they reached street level.

"Mr. Weasley, if Fudge is meeting with Death Eaters like Malfoy, if he's seeing them alone, how do we know they haven't been putting him under the Imperius Curse?"

"Don't think it hadn't occurred to us, Harriet," muttered Mr. Weasley. "But Dumbledore thinks Fudge is acting of his own accords at the moment - which, as Dumbledore says, is not a lot of comfort. Best not to talk about it anymore just now, Harriet."

Or at all. Harriet figured that Mr. Weasley had decided that he had told her more than she should know. The rest of the walk back to Grimmauld Place was devoid of any meaningful conversation.

When they walked through the front door of Number Twelve, the Weasley children and Hermione came racing down the stairs.

"She was cleared of all charges," Mr. Weasley announced.

"I knew it!" Ron yelled. "You always get away with stuff!"

The yelling woke up Mrs. Black's portrait.

"They were bound to clear you," said Hermione, wincing from Mrs. Black's screaming. "There was no case against you, none at all."

They all went down to the kitchen to escape Mrs. Black's ranting. Mrs. Weasley and Sirius were waiting there for them. They were pleased to see her.

"Everyone seems quite relieved, though, considering they all knew I'd get off," said Harriet.

Mrs. Weasley, who was working in the kitchen, wiped her brow with her apron. The twins and Ginny were dancing around, chanting, "She got off, she got off, she got off!"

"That's enough, settle down!" Mr. Weasley shouted. He may have yelled, but he was smiling. He turned to Sirius. "Listen, Sirius, Lucius Malfoy was at the Ministry."

"What?" Sirius said sharply.

"Yes, we saw him talking to Fudge on level nine, then they went up to Fudge's office together. Dumbledore ought to know."

"We'll tell him, don't worry," said Sirius.

"Well, I'd better get going, there's a vomiting toilet in Bethnal Green waiting for me," said Mr. Weasley. "Molly, I'll be late, I'm covering for Tonks, but Kingsley might be dropping in for dinner."

"She got off, she got off, she got off!" Ginny and the twins continued to chant.

"That's enough – Fred – George – Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at them as Mr. Weasley left the kitchen. "Harriet dear, come eat some lunch. You hardly ate any breakfast."

Ron and Hermione sat opposite of Harriet and she began to tell them about what happened at the Ministry.

"'Course, once Dumbledore turned up on your side, there was no way they were going to convict you," Ron said happily as he dished out great mounds of mashed potatoes onto his plate.

Harriet frowned at him.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked her.

"Dumbledore?" Harriet repeated.

"Yeah, Dumbledore showed up for your defense," said Ron. "Didn't he?"

"No," said Harriet. "The women of Number Two were my defense, Margarita was the witness. I didn't see him until after the hearing. Why did you think Dumbledore defended me?"

"Who else was going to act as your defense?" Hermione asked. "We didn't know your neighbors would be there. But it was very nice that this Margarita made it there in time to testify."

"I bet Dumbledore turns up this evening to celebrate with us, you know," Ron said happily.

"I don't think he'll be able to, Ron," said Mrs. Weasley, setting more food out on the table. "He's really very busy at the moment."

After lunch, Harriet helped Mrs. Weasley clean up before going to find Sirius. She went upstairs only to encounter Hermione in the hallway.

"Have you seen Sirius?" Harriet asked.

"He's sulking in his mother's room with Buckbeak," Hermione told her.

"Sulking?" asked Harriet. "Over not being able to leave the house?"

"No, it's because he got his hopes up that you would be coming to live with him here," said Hermione. "But you can't. You belong at Hogwarts and Sirius knows it. He's being selfish really."

"Selfish? For wanting me to come live with him?"

"He was probably hoping that you would be expelled and that the two of you could be outcasts together," Hermione went on, her superior tone slipping in. "I think Mrs. Weasley is right, you know. He gets confused with about whether you're you or your father, Harriet."

"So you think he's touched in the head?" Harriet asked, her temper rising.

"No, I just think he's been very lonely for a long time," Hermione answered. "Though I don't see how. He'll have company. This is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix."

"Hey!" Ron approached them looking annoyed. "Mum wants us to start cleaning the third floor, something about some moldy cupboards. Does she realize how much mold we've cleaned since we got here? I feel like a house-elf," he complained.

Harriet could have laughed. She had been cooking and cleaning for the Dursleys all her life and was locked in her cupboard or worse if things were to their satisfaction. Cleaning Number Twelve might have been tedious, but she got three meals a day and wasn't outrageously punished for missing a spot.

"Well, now you understand what dreadful lives they lead, perhaps you'll be a bit more active in S.P.E.W.!" said Hermione hopefully. "You know, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to show people exactly how horrible it is to clean all the time – we could do a sponsored scrub of Gryffindor common room, all proceeds to S.P.E.W., it would raise awareness as well as funds."

"I'll sponsor you to shut up about spew," Ron muttered irritably, but Hermione paid no attention to him.

Harriet shook her head at their antics and went to her room. She got the journal out of her trunk before continuing her search for Sirius.

Sirius had just stepped out of his mother's bedroom when Harriet found him.

"I need to talk to you."

"What is it, Harriet?" Sirius asked.

"You said you wanted to know about the women of Number Two."

"Yes," he said slowly.

She told him what she hadn't been able to say about the four women of Number Two, everything from her time with them up until them helping her at the hearing. She also shared with him that they had found out a few things, but they never had a chance to tell her because Dumbledore wouldn't let her stay and talk to them and Mr. Weasley had hurried to get her back to the house. When she got to the part about them wanting Sirius to invite them to Grimmauld Place, he shook his head.

"The house is under the Fidelius Charm. Dumbledore is the secret keeper. He's not about to tell someone he doesn't trust where this house is."

"But you're the owner of the house," said Harriet. "Forsythia said if you as the owner invite them, it'll bypass the Fidelius Charm."

"How?" asked Sirius.

"I don't know," said Harriet. "I think it has something to do with their magic. They don't use wands or say spells out loud to do magic. Sirius, please. If they were Death Eaters, why not kill me or take me to Voldemort when they had the chance?"

Sirius was deep in thought for a long moment. "Why not?" he finally said with a grin. "If anything we'll have a bit more excitement here. All right, let's invite them."

"Okay, Forsythia said you needed to say a certain phrase. 'I, Sirius Black, as the master of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, invite Ophelia, Ursula, Margarita, and Forsythia of Number Two, Privet Drive into my home.'"

"I, Sirius Black, as master of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, invite Ophelia, Ursula, Margarita, and Forsythia of Number Two, Privet Drive into my home," he repeated.

They waited for something to happen, but nothing did.

"They said they'd come," Harriet said discouraged.

"You can't expect them to just appear," said Sirius. "I invited them and now it's up to them to come."

There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder that shook the whole house.

Sirius and Harriet looked at each other in surprise.

"That doesn't mean anything," said Sirius.

The doorbell rang.

* * *

**Scene.**

**I gave you the treat and here's the trick; you have to wait to find out what happens next. It seems to be a theme I've been doing recently. I've done it with the chapter three of ****_Common Enemy_**** and the most recent chapter of ****_Quote the Pauper Forevermore_****. If all goes well, you won't have to wait too long for the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Trick or treat. ****I wasn't going to do a second chapter this month, but then I thought that it would be appropriate to post it on Halloween. Like the last chapter, we have another scavenger hunt and this time there are eleven "pieces of candy" hiding in the chapter. Have fun.**

* * *

Sirius and Harriet almost tripped themselves as they ran down the stairs to answer the front door. Like always when the doorbell rang, Mrs. Black's portrait started howling insults. Sirius got to the door first and almost yanked it off its hinges in his haste.

Standing on the porch were Ophelia, Ursula, Margarita, and Forsythia, all changed out of their court attire. Ophelia was wearing a deep purple, almost black, dress with a deep neckline, a black leather jacket, and tall black leather boots laced up to the knee. Her makeup was much heavier now with a purple smoky eye and deep red lip. Ursula was wearing a long black dress with a corset cinching her waist tightly and a large black hat with black roses on top and a veil draping over her face and shoulders. She flipped it up with a flourish to reveal her graphic black eyeliner and deep blue lipstick. Around her neck was a choker necklace made up of many layered silver chains and a few blue and black stones hanging from them. Margarita had on a military green and black vest worn open to show off her dark brown running tank, running capris that matched her vest, black running sneakers, and black training gloves. She had a black thigh pouch strapped to her right thigh. Forsythia had on a top with a bold seashell and coral print in bright shades of blue, green, purple, and lilac, a white cardigan over top, lilac pants, and white slip-on shoes. Her golden hair was pulled up by a scarf with the same bold print as her top and she was wearing a pair of white flower earrings.

Sirius stared at the four women in awe of their appearances. "Ladies, are you from France? Because ma-damn!"

Ophelia laughed. "You have to try so much harder."

Harriet groaned in embarrassment. This caught the attention of the four women.

"Harriet!" Ursula sang, sweeping into the house. The skirt of her dress turned out to be wide cut pants. Her heels clicked across the floor as she came up to give Harriet a hug.

Sirius stepped aside for the other women to enter.

"Thank you for inviting us," said Forsythia.

"Thank you for helping my goddaughter," Sirius replied.

"Filth! Scum!" Mrs. Black continued to scream. She paused only for a moment to see the four women who had just walked into the house. "Harlots! Whores! You wretched spawn of my flesh, how dare you bring trollops into my house!"

Margarita looked over at Ophelia and Ursula. "She's got you two pegged," she smirked.

"Excuse me?" asked Ursula.

"Uh, you have no room to talk," Ophelia told Margarita. "We know exactly what you were doing above Lux."

"And he's ruined every other man for me," retorted Margarita.

Mrs. Black continued to shout at the women. Annoyed, Ophelia rolled her eyes and turned to the portrait. She extended her arm and put her thumb up like she was judging the scale of the portrait. She swiped her thumb and Mrs. Black went silent. Ophelia smirked. They all looked at why Mrs. Black had suddenly gone silent and saw her mouth had been erased. Mrs. Black floundered around, waving her hands and stomping her feet in outrage.

Sirius gave a bark of laughter and hugged Ophelia. "We've been trying to shut her up since we got here!" He kissed her on the cheek.

"Down, boy," Ophelia said with a laugh.

Mrs. Weasley came downstairs. "What's going on? Harriet, I need you upstairs to help clean." She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and stared at the women. "Who are you?"

"Harriet's neighbors," Ursula answered. "You?"

"Harriet's –" Mrs. Weasley started to say. She turned to Sirius. "Dumbledore didn't say anything about Harriet's neighbors coming to visit."

"Because he didn't invite them," said Sirius. "I did."

"You invited them?" shrieked Mrs. Weasley. "What were you thinking? Inviting complete strangers into the house without permission! Dumbledore will be livid! How did they get past the Fidelius?"

Ursula leaned over to Ophelia. "Pity you can't do the same trick to her."

"I could, but she could hurt herself," said Ophelia.

Harriet whipped around to Ophelia and Ursula in horror.

Ursula looked bemused. "And you haven't done it why, you sadist?"

"Wouldn't want to stir things up too early in the day, would we?" Ophelia said with a smirk.

Mrs. Weasley continued to scold Sirius and a new sound started coming from Mrs. Black's portrait. Harriet saw the mouthless woman pounding on surfaces in her portrait to get attention. She wasn't the only one to notice. Ophelia turned to the portrait with a glare.

"You know that trick I used on your mouth? Yeah, that works on other parts of the body as well. Keep it up and find out what happens," Ophelia challenged.

Mrs. Weasley stopped yelling for a moment and looked at the portrait. Shock colored her face when she saw Mrs. Black had no mouth to scream with. She turned to Ophelia. "Did you do that? Put her right this instant!" Mrs. Weasley demanded.

"Now hold on!" Sirius interjected. "We've been trying to shut up my dear mum for weeks. Why should she undo the spell? This is the next best thing to removing her portrait."

"Can't get it down?" Margarita asked.

"There's a Permanent Sticking Charm on it," Sirius told her.

"I can give it a try," offered Forsythia. "But it depends on if you want to keep the portrait."

"I want her gone," said Sirius. "If you destroy her portrait in the process, all the better."

"I need to floo-call Dumbledore," said Mrs. Weasley. "Sirius, you stay here. Harriet, come with me."

"Let her stay," said Ophelia. "This will be a good learning experience for her."

"Harriet, go to the kitchen," ordered Mrs. Weasley.

"She'll be fine, Molly," Sirius dismissed. "She probably wants to see this as much as I do."

Mrs. Weasley turned sharply to Sirius. "You be quiet! You caused this mess and now we have to clean it up. Harriet, go!"

The four women of Number Two all turned to Harriet.

"This is your choice," said Margarita.

Harriet looked at Mrs. Weasley. "I want to stay and watch."

"Harriet, you will listen to me!" Mrs. Weasley shouted.

"She's got a brain in her skull and knows how to use it," Ophelia cut in before Mrs. Weasley could start ranting. "She's been pretty good with her decision making with us around. Besides, she's not a dog to be ordered around. Nor is she your child."

"She's as good as my daughter!" argued Mrs. Weasley.

"So you think that gives you the right to tell her to sit, speak, lay down, roll over, and spread," Ophelia snapped back.

Mrs. Weasley and Sirius were taken aback by Ophelia's comment.

"Well, I never!" Mrs. Weasley gasped. "Wait until Dumbledore hears about this – ooh, I don't know what he'll do to you, but it won't be pleasant!"

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Ophelia asked. "Call all of your Order, in fact. They'll all want to hear what we have to say."

Mrs. Weasley spun around with a huff and hurried to the kitchen.

Harriet looked over at Forsythia. "What did she mean by that?"

"Ophelia? Let's just say we've been doing some digging," said Forsythia. "And no one's going to like what we found."

A hand rested on Harriet's shoulder. "It'll be okay," Margarita assured her.

Harriet gave a nod and for the first time noticed that Margarita was carrying a briefcase like the women of Number Two had in the courtroom. She wondered what exactly was in it.

Ursula walked over to the stairs. Something hanging over the railing got her attention. She reached out and plucked it out of the shadows.

"I see you up there," she called. "Why don't you come down here and explain this little gadget to me, hmm?"

Fred and George Apparated to either side of Ursula. Ursula didn't even flinch, just turned and smiled at them. The string of the Extendable Ear fell to the floor from the stair landing next to her.

"Ooh, twins," Ursula commented. "Interesting."

"At your service, milady," they said in unison.

George took her empty hand and kissed the back of it and Fred did the same with the other hand, deftly taking the Extendable Ear from her hand and tucking in his pocket.

"Fred."

"And George."

"Ursula. And those are Forsythia and Margarita. And the ugly one in the purple is my delusional 'rival' Ophelia."

Ophelia scoffed. "I beg your pardon?"

Ursula gave her a sly look. "Please, we all know you try to imitate me."

"More like it's the other way around," Ophelia countered.

"Ladies, let's not fight," said Fred.

"You're all beautiful," said George.

"It's like trying to choose which unicorn is prettier," said Fred.

Margarita raised a brow. "Unicorns? Really?"

Ursula smiled. "Little charmers, aren't they?"

"Matter of opinion," said Margarita. She jerked her thumb in Sirius's direction. "Better than that one."

"Hey!" Sirius cried out, indignant.

Mrs. Weasley returned to the hall and saw the twins. "Fred! George! Go back upstairs right now! This is an Order matter! You're supposed to be upstairs cleaning!"

"It's an Order matter, all right," said Ophelia. "It's a matter of what the Order has been doing."

"Certainly a few secrets that they don't want getting out," Ursula added.

"Are you threatening us?" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "You think you can come in here and do as you please?"

"Like you?" Ophelia asked. "Harriet's been keeping in touch with us. We know what's been going on in this house."

Mrs. Weasley started at Harriet agape. "Harriet, how could you? This place is supposed to be secret! How could you be so irresponsible? Didn't you think before you told them?"

Mrs. Black started thumping around in her portrait again.

Ophelia rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Forsythia, if you're going to do something about that damn picture, do it now before I blow it off the wall, plaster and all!"

Forsythia walked up to Mrs. Black's portrait and clapped her hands together like she was praying. Wisps of magic came off her hands. She then slammed her hands against the portrait. Arcs of light shot off her hands and disintegrated it off the wall. When she was finished, there was only a pile of colorful dirt and melted metal on the floor.

"Thank you," Ophelia said.

"How did you do that?"

Standing on the stair landing were Hermione, Ron, and Ginny.

"What spell was that?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Just a little matter deconstruction work," said Forsythia.

"But how?" Hermione asked. "You didn't say a spell or have a wand?"

"Yes," Forsythia confirmed.

"So you can't do magic that way!" Hermione said. "So how did you do it?"

"How cute," Ophelia commented. "She thinks the only way to magic is with a wand."

The front door burst open and Moody was casting a spell. The spell was batted away by Ophelia and in the next moment his wand was stuck to the ceiling.

"Remember me?" Ophelia asked him sweetly.

The next hour was filled with screaming, yelling, spells being thrown, wands being stuck to the ceiling, and the umbrella stand being knocked over as the Order members showed up at the front door. Some peace was restored when Dumbledore arrived. He suggested they move out of the hall and take things to the kitchen. Wands were returned and the children were told to get back to cleaning, Harriet included, but Ophelia wasn't hearing it. Sirius also agreed since what the four women of Number Two had to say concerned Harriet and she should know what they had to say. Dumbledore tried to talk them out of having Harriet listen, saying she shouldn't be burdened so soon after the hearing. Ophelia and Ursula laughed in his face and told him he couldn't meddle with them like he did with Harriet. There was much whining and complaining from the children when Harriet was sent down to the kitchen. As the rest of the adults filed through the door, Ursula looked back at the twins and discreetly tugged at her ear.

Once they were in the kitchen, everyone got settled at the table. Mrs. Weasley fussed over Bill. The eldest Weasley son was nursing a sore shoulder, a banged up leg, and a bruised pride courtesy of Margarita taking him down when he barged into Number Twelve with his wand drawn. He was still in shock that the woman had disarmed him without magic and had thrown him to the floor, his leg knocking over the umbrella stand during the brief struggle.

"Let us begin this emergency meeting with introductions," Dumbledore declared.

The four women of Number Two did not look impressed with his grand call to order.

"As you know, I am Albus Dumbledore. These are -"

"We know," Ophelia interrupted. "Let's get this out of the way quickly. Anyone with red hair is a Weasley, the werewolf is Lupin, Sirius is a dog, the Metamorphmagus is Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody needs no explanation, big guy looming is Kingsley, the bat in the shadows is Snape, and the witch in the tartan print is McGonagall. That everyone?"

McGonagall bristled. "Show some respect to the headmaster, young lady!"

Ophelia looked at her. "He's not my headmaster."

"You should respect your elders!" Mrs. Weasley yelled.

Ophelia turned her gaze to her. "I'm showing him all the respect he deserves."

Dumbledore tried to regain control of the meeting. "And who are you, my dears?"

"Ophelia, and that's Ursula, Margarita, and Forsythia," she listed off, pointing a finger at each woman.

"Last names?" growled Moody.

"Not like you need to know them," Ophelia said.

"It is only polite," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling.

"So you can judge us on family?" inquired Ursula. "Or perhaps blood purity?"

"Can't be too careful," muttered Moody.

"We do not judge blood here," said Dumbledore.

"Just how useful one is," Ophelia cut in.

"Do not waste your time with pleasantries, Dumbledore," drawled Snape. "Americans have no concept of manners."

Ophelia only smirked. It made the hairs on the back of Harriet's neck rise.

"No need to be rude, Severus," Dumbledore gently chided. "But you ladies have raised many questions, the most important being how you found this house."

"We had an invitation," Ophelia replied simply.

"I don't recall ever meeting you to share the location," said Dumbledore, prodding for answers.

"You didn't," said Ophelia. "It was Sirius who invited us."

Everyone stared at Sirius with varying degrees of outrage and disbelief.

Dumbledore gave him a disappointed look. "Sirius, my boy, you should not have left the house or sent an owl."

"It seems the mutt can't follow instructions," sneered Snape. "It shouldn't surprise us."

"I never left!" Sirius yelled. "And I didn't send an owl!"

"And besides, it's his house. He can invited who he pleases," Ophelia added silkily to Snape. She looked at Dumbledore out of the corner of her eye. "Just like he can kick out who he pleases."

"Then how did you receive the invitation?" McGonagall asked.

"All he had to do was verbally invite us," said Forsythia. "We were listening."

"But how did he know to invite you?" asked McGonagall.

Harriet shrank back in her seat.

Dumbledore looked at Harriet. "Harriet? Did you tell Sirius to invite these women?" he asked in the same disappointed tone he had directed at Sirius moments ago.

"Yes, sir," she said in a small voice.

"That was very irresponsible of you," Dumbledore went on. "I thought you knew better than this. Perhaps I was wrong."

Harriet winced.

Ursula started to chuckled. "What's wrong, Dumbledore? Disappointed your little weapon isn't under your control as much as you think?"

Ophelia motioned to Margarita. Margarita stepped over and placed the briefcase in front of her. Ophelia opened up the briefcase and took out several files. She then motioned to the door. Margarita walked to the kitchen door. She gave it a solid thump with her fist before opening it. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and the twins were crowded by the door rubbing their ears in pain.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mrs. Weasley demanded.

"We were hungry, Mum," Ron complained. "It's lunchtime."

"You'll have to wait until the meeting is over," Mrs. Weasley told them. "Get back upstairs and get to cleaning."

"No need," said Ophelia. "We ordered food for pick-up. We're just waiting for it to be ready. Should be soon." She held up a smartphone in a purple case.

The wizards looked at the smartphone with confused expressions.

"Muggle electronics don't work around magic," Hermione told Ophelia.

The phone started to play music and the screen lit up with the name Jason.

Ophelia smirked as she swiped her finger across the screen. "Yes, Jason." She paused. "I'm meeting with them right now. Yes, they are quite perplexed. Oh, thank you, I was waiting on that. I sent it to your mailbox because I'm coming by later and I wanted your opinion on it and I didn't feel like having to lug it with me." There was another long pause. "I know, but it still takes up space in my purse. I'll make it up to you. How? I'll stop by Chocolaterie Maya and get a box of your favorites. Thank you, Jason, you're my knight in shining armor."

Ursula, Margarita, and Forsythia all held in giggles.

Ophelia ignored them to listen to the person on the other end of the line. "What did he say? What? Come on, tell me. Jason, I can make you tell me. Or I could have him tell me himself. You don't think I would? Change, change, o for-" Ophelia held the phone away from her ear and looked at the screen. She started giggling with the other women of Number Two.

"He hung up on you?" asked Ursula.

"Of course he did," Ophelia replied. "Ah, I'll get him later. Now, back to business."

Hermione stared at Ophelia flabbergasted. "That's not possible. Electronics can't work around magic."

Ophelia smirked at Hermione. "Then what was that just now?"

The words were barely out of her mouth when her phone chimed. She checked it. "Food's ready. Forsythia."

Forsythia got up. "I'll be back." And she left the kitchen.

"She won't be long," said Ophelia. "We could probably get drinks out and she'll be back by then."

Mrs. Weasley got up to get drinks for everyone, calling Ginny to come help her. Ron and Hermione tried to sit next to Harriet, but found they couldn't. Sirius wouldn't move from his spot next to Harriet and the chair on the other side of Harriet mysteriously broke when he sat on it. Mrs. Weasley made Ron sit next to Bill so she could check him over for any bruises. The twins snickered at his misfortune and Ron glared at them.

It was only a couple minutes later when Forsythia returned with trays of food levitating behind her. "We have salads, chicken sandwiches and wraps, some chicken strips, a fruit tray, mac and cheese, waffle fries, and cookies for dessert."

Food was passed out. Harriet bit into her chicken sandwich and glanced around the table. Most everyone was quiet, only asking for something to be passed to them from across the table. She caught Ron shoveling his mouth full of waffle fries and chicken strips. She shuddered, having flashbacks of Dudley at the dinner table.

"That was delicious," Dumbledore announced once he was finished. "Now that we're fed and watered, we can move on to the meeting. Children, if you excuse us."

"No need," said Ophelia, rearranging the files that were sitting on the table. "After we met Harriet here, we got curious about a few things."

"Such as why she was placed with her neglectful aunt and uncle," said Ursula.

"The Dursley's are hardly neglectful," said Dumbledore.

"Margarita," Ophelia called with a wave of her hand.

"Underfed, suffering from malnutrition, wrong eyeglass prescription, scars from numerous injuries, bones replaced in her right arm, antibodies to basilisk venom; the list goes on," Margarita reported. "There is also the evidence of her clothes always being the wrong size or being worn out."

Snape scoffed. "So Precious Potter doesn't have the latest and nicest clothes. She could use some humbling."

Margarita ignored the comment. "When the Dursleys can clearly afford to spend money on her when their son always the newest toy or fashion. I also found something sinister about her scar."

Dumbledore stiffened in his chair.

"We'll get to that in a moment," said Ophelia. "Let's start with the glaringly obvious neglect. We thought it was very strange that none of the neighbors reported it and that they all believed whatever the Dursleys told them. We did some investigating and found these."

Ophelia laid out several papers.

"What are these?" asked Mr. Weasley.

"Reports from CPS," said Ophelia. "All stating the same thing; that Harriet Potter was to be removed from the house. There are also a couple calling for the removal of both children from the house. We asked a few of the caseworkers why this did not happen. A few say they went back to the house for a surprise inspection and found nothing wrong, that Harriet had been faking it. Others have no memory of filing the report much less ever visiting Number Four."

"Those who have no memory of filing the reports or Harriet have brain damage consistent with someone having their memories altered," said Margarita.

"Brain damage?" Bill asked.

"How do you think memory erasers work?" Ophelia asked.

"But Obliviators are trained to not do any harm to Muggles," said Kingsley.

"But do your Obliviators erase memories or do they suppress them?" asked Margarita.

"What's the difference?" asked Tonks.

"To erase a memory is to destroy it forever," said Margarita. "To suppress it is to give it a chance for it to be remembered. A person may remember it in a week or they could never remember it at all. But even suppressing memories can to damage as well if it is done multiple times."

Harriet remember the man at the Quidditch World Cup who had been Obliviated so many times.

"Those who said they went back for surprise inspections never did," Ophelia went on. "They were paid to report that all was well and there was no need for further investigation. We followed the money back to the Dursleys' accounts and found something strange."

Ophelia took out papers from another file. She laid them out on the table over top of the CPS reports. Harriet recognized some of them as bank statements.

"Those are Harriet's Gringotts statements!" Bill cried, jumping up from his chair. "How did you get those?"

"Gringotts statements?" Harriet asked. "My Gringotts statements?"

Bill turned to Harriet. "You didn't give them to them?"

"Give them? I didn't know I had Gringott's statements," Harriet said. "I never received anything from Gringotts."

"That's because someone has their mitts in your account," said Ophelia.

"But if Harriet didn't give these to you, how did you get her account statements?" asked Sirius. "The goblins don't just give that to anyone."

"It helps to know goblins in high places," said Ursula. "And we have connections to a very powerful goblin."

"There is no goblin at Gringotts, not even the head goblin, who would share bank statements just because somebody asked them!" Bill argued.

"You're right," said Ophelia. "No goblin at Gringotts. But we didn't ask the goblins of Gringotts. We went right to the Goblin King."

Bill paled. "The Goblin King?" he asked, his voice strained.

Ophelia looked over at Forsythia. "Forsythia is somewhat in his good graces."

"I just had to ask him nicely," said Forsythia. "And I added that someone may have been trying to cheat the goblins. He didn't like that idea very much. Plus there was the promise of mischief. That he did like."

"And he basically gave us carte blanche for anything of Harriet's at Gringotts," said Ophelia. She searched another file folder for something. "By the way, you work at Gringotts, right?"

"Yes," said Bill.

She handed him a file. "That is for your bosses. It is a cease and desist order though there is much more to it. You have angered the Egyptian government and the tomb keepers are absolutely livid that you have defiled and plundered one of the scared tombs. Further 'exploration' without the Egyptian government and tomb keepers' express permission will result with you labeled as tomb robbers and you will be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the tomb keepers' laws. And just so you know, they execute tomb robbers."

"Execute?" cried Mrs. Weasley. "Because my son is doing his job? That's barbaric!"

"They're not taking care of the tombs!" argued Bill. "They're leaving dangerous curses in place where people can get hurt. We have to disable them so they don't hurt the Muggles."

"You are poking around in stuff you shouldn't be," said Ophelia. "There are reasons generations of tomb keepers have guarded those tombs and left the curses in place and laid more of their own. They don't need foreigners sticking their so-called well-meaning noses in their business, especially ones who disable the protections in the tombs and steal the dead's belongings. The Ishtars are the most powerful tomb keeping family and they have sent multiple warnings about digging around the tombs. They are pissed off and are done asking nicely."

"But what about the Muggle archeologists who enter the tombs?" Hermione spoke up. "And the history? And all the things we can learn from them?"

"Some things are meant to stay buried," said Ursula.

"But why?" Hermione asked, almost whining. "If history is forgotten, we can't learn from other people's mistakes."

"Or they can be repeated by some wide-eyed fool who thinks they know better and won't make the same mistakes," said Ursula, narrowing her eyes at Hermione.

"Anyway, message delivered, moving on," said Ophelia. "When we traced the money back to the Dursleys' account, we noticed the exact amount of money used to pay off the CPS workers was being transferred into their account from a different bank. That bank's name was an alias for Gringotts, which was why we went to the Goblin King for help. The account the transfers were coming out of is actually a vault belonging to one Harriet Jasmine Potter."

"I didn't authorize any transfers," said Harriet. The Dursleys were paying off CPS workers with her money! "I didn't even know Gringotts sent out bank statements. I was never told anything!"

"Of course they do, you stupid girl," Snape sneered.

"Don't call my goddaughter stupid, Snivellus!" Sirius snapped, leaning out of his seat like he was going to attack Snape.

Harriet and Remus both made to grab Sirius.

"Severus!" scolded McGonagall.

"And it's not like people tell me anything," Harriet went on. "Hagrid just gave me my vault key and said my parents left me with something."

"No surprise there," said Ophelia. "Your vault – I guess you can call him your account custodian, didn't want you to know. He's been getting all your statements and other paperwork and making all the transfers. And it's a pretty safe bet he's doing the memory alterations, too."

"Who would do this?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes, who would do this?" Ophelia turned the Gringotts statement so everyone at the table could read it.

Everyone leaned over the table to look at the names of who had access to the vault. Of course Harriet's name was on it since it was her vault, but there was another name listed: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

"That can't be right," said Remus. "There must be some mistake."

Sirius looked at Dumbledore. "Why is your name on Harriet's vault?"

"Harriet needed an adult to look over her finances," said Dumbledore calmly. "She is a child who can't be responsible for managing her money."

Harriet pulled the statements closer to her to read.

"I will take those, my dear," said Dumbledore, holding his hand out for the statements.

Harriet ignored him and tried to read over the statements.

"Miss Potter, the headmaster is speaking to you," said McGonagall. "You will give him those statements."

"Why should she?" Sirius demanded. "Those are her vault statements."

"She's just a child," Mrs. Weasley cut in. "She doesn't understand banking."

She drew her wand to summon the vault statements. She casted the Summoning Charm only to have Ursula wave her hand and bat the magic away.

"Or do you not want her to see what the good headmaster is doing with her money?" Ursula mocked.

"How dare you!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at her.

Ursula let out a laugh. "Oh, I dare. You have no idea how much we dare. Just wait, you'll get your turn."

Harriet was confused at what she was looking at. She never read a bank statement before, only catching glimpses of Vernon's. That was the only reason she recognized the account her money was being transferred to on a monthly basis. "The Dursleys are being paid?"

"It would make sense that they would receive a stipend for you care," said Remus.

"I never saw any of it!" Harriet cried angrily. "I was always told I was taken in out of the goodness of their hearts and was always costing them their hard earned money. It didn't matter that Dudley was always getting the newest toys. I so much as asked for new clothes and I was told I was draining them dry and taking food off their precious son's plate!"

"Don't be so dramatic, Potter," Snape drawled. "Not everyone wants to bow down and worship you."

Harriet's head snapped around to him, but Ursula cut in, "Like you like to worship Dumbledore? Please, don't sound so high and mighty. You just kiss his ass for protection and he only keeps you around to be his little spy. Do us all a favor; keep your forked tongue behind your teeth."

"Young lady, you are being very rude," McGonagall scolded.

"Oh, shut up," said Ursula. "Besides the amount of money being transferred to them was far more than the typical stipend."

Sirius leaned over Harriet's shoulder to look at the vault statement in her hand. "There were also transfers out of her vault to Dumbledore's personal vault, the Weasleys' vault, and a vault in Hermione's name."

"Which probably has Dumbledore listed as custodian on that vault as well," said Ophelia.

Harriet looked at the statement and saw what Sirius was talking about. There were hundreds of galleons transferred from her vault to Dumbledore, the Weasleys, and Hermione. She turned to Dumbledore.

"Why would you take money out of my vault?" she asked him.

Dumbledore wouldn't answer or look at her.

This infuriated Harriet. She slammed her fist on the table. "Look at me!" she screamed. "Why would you take money out of my vault?"

"Miss Potter!" gasped McGonagall in shock. "You will not speak to the headmaster like that. Apologize at once!"

Harriet ignored McGonagall and turned to Ron and Hermione. "Why are you taking money from me?"

"It's not like you were going to use it!" Ron blurted out.

Harriet stared at him, stunned.

"Ron, shut up!" hissed Hermione.

"Because they're paid to be your friends, just like the Dursleys were paid to keep you," said Ophelia. "It's not like you could have real friends. Oh, no, that would never work in the plan. You needed to be molded, managed to be what Dumbledore wanted. You needed to be monitored and controlled at all times with the illusion of free will. He needs you to be a hero, a pleaser, self-sacrificing, and clueless of everything outside the bubble he's kept you in."

It was starting to make sense to Harriet. Ron was always hogging all her time and talking about Wizard's Chess, Quidditch, and complaining about homework. He spouted off on how all Slytherins were evil and how she was the Girl-Who-Lived and she could get away with anything. He was a jealous prat with as bad a temper as Dudley. Hermione only cared about books and authority, nagging at them to study, but then got mad when somebody did better than her. Harriet wouldn't deny that she was smart, but she put the rules above all and trusted adults blindly, like Harriet could never do. Harriet had tried to tell adults about Dudley's bullying, the Dursleys' mistreatment, about the Sorcerer's Stone, the basilisk, the tournament, and they failed her time and time again with only a few ever believing her and fewer coming through. Now she was beginning to understand why. It was all by design.

"Was any of it real?" she asked her "friends" in a small voice. "For one moment did you ever care about me? Me, not my money?"

She turned to Hermione. "Was rescuing you from the troll a set up?"

"No," Hermione answered quietly.

"But the rest?"

"I was trying to help you," Hermione weakly defended.

"I needed help," snapped Harriet. "Just not the help you wanted to give me. What about Ginny and the diary?"

"We wouldn't let You-Know-Who near our children," said Mr. Weasley resolutely. "How could you think we would put our daughter in such danger?"

Harriet went back to looking at her most recent vault statement. "All these transfers, why so many more?"

"Because Dumbledore's flat-ass broke," said Ophelia. "He lost most of his titles and with it the salaries that came with them. So now he can't pay for his Order or pay off the Weasleys and Hermione, so he has to dip into your vault more and more."

This caused an uproar from the table. The accused started yelling at Ophelia for stating such things and tried to deny and defend their actions to the rest of the Order. No one was louder than Mrs. Weasley.

"How dare you accuse the headmaster of such things!"

"Seems to be the phrase of the day," Ophelia said flippantly, grinning almost sadistically from her chair.

"We'll probably be sick of it by the time we leave," Ursula bemoaned. "Pity, it was one of my favorite phrases to hear."

Mrs. Weasley jumped up from her seat. "You little tarts! Coming in here and spreading all these horrible lies about the headmaster! He is the defeater of Grindelwald! He is the one You-Know-Who fears! He is the leader of the Order of the Phoenix!"

"Then let's move on to you," Ophelia said. "I guess since you get down on your knees and worship him it's okay for you to set up your son with a betrothal contract."

Mrs. Weasley went pale. Mr. Weasley glanced at his wife with an apprehensive expression. They both watched with their breaths held as Ophelia opened another folder and took out a paper. She placed it in the middle of the table for all to see. Mrs. Weasley snatched the paper up and held it to her chest. A finger snap caused the paper to vanish.

"You didn't think we would find this, did you?" Ursula purred, holding the paper in one hand.

"What is it?" asked Sirius.

"This is a betrothal contract for Harriet Jasmine Potter and Ronald Bilius Weasley," Ursula replied. "Signed by Dumbledore and Molly Weasley."

Sirius was out of his chair again and shouting at Mrs. Weasley for creating the betrothal contract between Harriet and Ron. Lupin and Moody had to physically restrain him and force him back into his chair to keep him from attacking her. Mrs. Weasley was screaming at him that it was for Harriet's future and she was looking out for the girl she thought of as a daughter.

Harriet's stomach dropped. She couldn't imagine marrying Ron Weasley. And who was Dumbledore to tell her who she would marry? It also hadn't escaped Harriet's notice that Sirius was only yelling at Mrs. Weasley and not Dumbledore as well.

"Harriet," said the twins, "we swear on our shop that we didn't know about this."

"Your shop?" Mrs. Weasley asked, distracted by her sons' comment. "What do you mean your shop?"

"That's not important right now, Mum!" Bill yelled. "You're the one trying to commit line theft!"

Harriet looked at the women of Number Two. Ophelia and Ursula were watching the chaos they were creating with smiles, Margarita standing impassively behind them. Forsythia saw Harriet looking at her and made a placating gesture with her hand. Harriet got the feeling there was more to this she didn't know but was with the way things were going, she would find out in a moment.

"Not that it's binding," said Ophelia.

Harriet let out a sigh of relief.

"Not binding?" Mrs. Weasley parroted.

"Not binding," Ophelia repeated. "Because you are not the head of your household as much as you like to think you are."

Mrs. Weasley whipped around to her husband. "Arthur!"

Bill turned to his father, outraged. "Dad! Did you know about this?"

Mr. Weasley floundered for an answer.

"And," Ophelia interrupted, taking some glee from this, "Dumbledore is not Harriet's legal guardian. And before you go running to the Dursleys to pay them for custody, they aren't her legal guardians either."

Harriet gasped. The Dursleys weren't her legal guardians? "Then who is?"

Ophelia turned to Sirius. "He is. After all, he is your godfather."

"Him?" cried Mrs. Weasley. "He can barely take care of himself! He's hardly a responsible adult!"

"But create betrothal contract?" Lupin asked.

"An insurance policy of sorts," surmised Ophelia. "I doubt Dumbledore is expecting Harriet to survive Voldemort in the end. And if she somehow does, he has a way to keep her under his thumb. What better way than to put her with a family blindly devoted to him? And when she dies or is imprisoned for being the next Dark Lady, the Weasleys, specifically Ron, get everything."

"You're wrong!" Hermione shouted.

Ophelia looked at the bushy haired girl with a smirk. "Oh, I was waiting for you to chime in. What am I so wrong about?"

"Professor Dumbledore is helping Harriet," Hermione said vehemently. "He's trying to make things easier on her, but he can't be there all the time to help her, so I do. I make sure she does her homework and stays out of trouble."

"You must feel like such a big girl," mocked Ursula.

"Someone has to be responsible for them," Hermione argued. "All those two talk about is Quidditch and Wizard's Chess. They would have failed all their classes if I wasn't there to remind them to do their homework and quiz them for tests."

"And snitch to the adults if she did something you didn't approve of," Ursula added.

"She doesn't think!" Hermione cried angrily. "She's impulsive and expects me to get her out of the trouble she causes! When I see she's about to do something that can get her in trouble, I try to stop her. She would be dead if it wasn't for me!"

As hurt as Harriet was by Hermione's confession, she admitted that she would possibly be dead if Hermione hadn't been around.

"And what do you get in return?" Ophelia asked. "Other than the gold from her vault."

"Nothing," Hermione answered.

"Liar!" Ursula sang. "You should know something, honey, we're really good at telling when someone is lying. And you, Miss Goody Two-Shoes, are a horrible liar." She leaned her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her interlaced fingers. "So what was it? Books? Unrestricted access to the Hogwarts library? Harriet already told us that you were trying to get into the library here."

"And Sirius won't let me," pouted Hermione.

"Because that is the Black family library," said Sirius. "You are not a Black."

"What should it matter?" Hermione exploded at him. "Why should you be able to read those books just because your name is Black?"

"Hermione, there are family secrets in that library," Lupin told her calmly. "You wouldn't give up your family secrets to someone who isn't your family, would you?"

Ursula scoffed. "Of course she would. She believes all knowledge should be shared, unless someone in 'authority' tells her not to tell."

"That's not true!" Hermione shouted.

"Then what did he give you?" asked Ursula. "Hmm? Tell me, Little Miss Know-It-All Show-Off. What did he give you that was so important?"

Fuming at Ursula's name calling, Hermione told her, "He said he would help me get into the Ministry when I graduated. I would be able to continue my work on house-elf rights."

Ophelia and Ursula burst out in laughter.

"Stop laughing!" Hermione screamed. "It's not funny. They're slaves and slavery is wrong!"

Forsythia pinched the bridge of her nose. "Did you ask the house-elves what they wanted?"

Hermione looked at Forsythia. "They don't know any better. They think they have to be slaves to wizards. But they can do so much better if someone just shows them that slavery is wrong."

Ophelia and Ursula laughed even louder.

"What's so funny?" Hermione demanded. "Tell me!"

Ophelia tried to speak, but couldn't articulate any words. She just waved at Margarita.

"They're laughing at the irony of your statement," said Margarita. "When you graduate, you'll be nothing more than a slave yourself if you stay in the magical world. You are not a pureblood so you are a second-class citizen in their eyes. You can be at the top of your class in all your subjects, but you'll only be able to hold a secretarial job at best. The only useful purpose you can possibly serve in their eyes is to be the concubine of a pureblood, birthing as many half-blood children as possible to be auctioned off to other pureblood families to refresh the gene pool."

"That's not true!" shouted Hermione. "Harriet's mother was a Muggle-born and she married a pureblood. He loved her!"

"James Potter was an exception to the usual pureblood marrying practices," said Margarita. "And he was looked down on for it in society for the short time they were married. If his family was more traditional, Lily would be a mistress at most and she nor her children would inherit anything while James's pureblood wife would be Lady Potter and her children would want for nothing."

"Face it, the only reason you'll go far is if you continue to worship at the altar of Dumbledore," said Ophelia finally regaining control of herself. "And he doesn't have the power he had three months ago, so good luck with that. You may want to start taking lessons from the slut-a-be sitting next to you." She looked pointedly at Ginny.

This caused all the Weasley males and Mrs. Weasley to start screaming at her for implying such a thing about their daughter.

"Harriet's been telling us everything that's been happening in this house, including what was said about making out with boys in the broom closets," Ophelia shouted over the noise.

Ginny started shrieking that just because she had a few crushes and took them in the broom closets didn't mean she was doing anything wrong. This was met by disapproving looks from the adults, although Dumbledore was looking at Harriet like she had been the one to do so.

"I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves," said Ophelia, deflecting from her last comment. "We talked about the insurance policy, but not why they need it. So Dumbledore, when were you planning on telling everyone about Voldemort's little horcruxes? Or what the prophecy says? Or were you just going to sit on it and wait to when you deem it relevant?"

Dumbledore glared at Ophelia for revealing something he didn't want others to know.

"How do you know about the prophecy?" growled Moody.

"Didn't you hear what was said a moment ago?" Ophelia asked. "Harriet's been letting us know what's been going on in this house. Sirius told her what the weapon was and she told us."

Dumbledore gave Harriet another disappointed look with his grandfatherly façade. "My dear girl, you should not have done that. Why would you tell strangers about such private matters?"

Harriet noticed he wasn't looking her in the eye again. "Because no one was giving me answers. Everyone here tells me not to concern myself or I can't understand it." She turned to Sirius. "Well, almost everyone. At least Sirius gave me honest answers. They saved my life and were willing to help me."

"You shouldn't simply trust people because they save you," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort has his spies everywhere."

"Like I did when my Hogwarts letter arrived?" Harriet asked angrily. "Like I was supposed to trust my professors who belittled me for not knowing the answers? Who wouldn't listen to me when there was a problem? Who shunned me because they thought I was lying?" She glared at Snape and McGonagall. "Guess I'm too stupid to learn my lesson. I'm such a dunderhead. Are you happy, Snape? I admit it."

"What's a horcrux?" Hermione interrupted.

Harriet glared at Hermione's eager tone. Of course she would interrupt to learn about something she didn't know about.

Ophelia gave a wave of her hand. "Ursula, this is more your thing."

Ursula smiled. "Thank you, Ophelia. A horcrux is a soul fragment. A person breaks off a piece of their soul and binds it to something. It's used for the purpose of trying to gain immortality. Most of the texts of how to create them have been destroyed and it's illegal to own any books with so much as a reference to it as it is too Dark just to mention it. Obviously Voldemort found a book that told how to make them. It's why he keeps coming back, the cockroach. Until all his horcruxes are destroyed, and we know there are multiple, he's just going to keep coming back."

"A piece of his soul?" Harriet repeated. "Like from second year?"

"The diary you told us about?" asked Ophelia. "Absolutely. That was one of them."

"And there's another horcrux right here in this room," said Ursula.

Everyone sat up and focused on Ursula.

"What is it?" Moody asked, drawing his wand.

"Not a what, but a who," said Ursula. "Seems that fateful Halloween night, Voldemort was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Take out the Potters and make a new horcrux. But he fucked up. He did make a new horcrux, but I seriously doubt he intended to make it out of something living."

They stared blankly at her, waiting for Ursula to tell them what or who the horcrux was.

Harriet was the first to figure it out. She covered her mouth in horror. It suddenly made sense why her scar hurt when Voldemort was near, why she had dreams about Voldemort. She was the horcrux!

"Who is it?" asked Tonks.

"Honestly, are you all that stupid?" Ursula asked. "Harriet."

Another outburst started up. Harriet couldn't make out anything they were saying and she couldn't be brought to care. She was still trying to process that she had been carrying around a piece of Voldemort's soul and didn't know about it. She saw Dumbledore was livid. Clearly he didn't want that information to be known.

"I'm not marrying her if she's got a piece of You-Know-Who in her!" Ron yelled. "She could turn Dark any second!"

"Ron, don't be so dense," Hermione scolded, looking terrified of Harriet. "The headmaster wouldn't let her around us if he thought that would happen."

"She talks to snakes, same as You-Know-Who!" Ron argued with her.

"She'll kill us in our sleep!" Ginny shrieked. "She needs to be locked up!"

"I will not have a piece of that wanker in my goddaughter!" shouted Sirius.

"She should have never been allowed here!" Moody yelled. "You-Know-Who could follow her here!"

Everyone's yelling blended together as they argued over what to do with Harriet as they deemed her a danger to the Order. Sirius, Lupin, and the twins were shouting their support of Harriet, but were drowned out. Mrs. Weasley shouted at the twins that they didn't know what they were talking about and to leave the kitchen along with the other children. Sirius and Snape were in an argument, Lupin trying to keep them from attacking each other. Kingsley, Tonks, and Moody were yelling at Dumbledore about not telling them about the horcruxes and that there was one in Harriet. Mr. Weasley, Bill, and McGonagall directed their outrage at Ophelia and Ursula about making up accusations without any proof.

"Silence!" Dumbledore yelled.

The room went quiet.

"Everyone, sit down," Dumbledore ordered, trying to maintain control over meeting.

Like dogs, the Order obeyed.

"I did not tell you about the horcruxes because I wasn't sure if they existed," said Dumbledore.

"Liar," Ursula called out.

"I suspected, but I could not confirm," Dumbledore stated firmly. "As for the prophecy, it is indeed a great weapon. If Voldemort learns what it says, he could use it against us."

"Again, liar," Ursula said again. "Ophelia, I get the feeling the prophecy isn't that important. If we really need to know what it says, we have our own ways. We don't need this old goat."

"If you think so," said Ophelia. "Let's get back to the horcrux in Harriet. So what was the plan, Dumbledore? Train her up to fight Voldemort with your little yearly tests? And then when it was time, after you found all the other horcruxes, have her sacrifice herself to Voldemort? Good plan because then you could swoop in, kill Voldemort, and be hailed as the next Merlin."

"No!" Sirius yelled. "Dumbledore wouldn't do that! He would find a way to get rid of the horcrux and save Harriet!"

"There is no way, my boy," said Dumbledore.

Sirius's head whipped around to the headmaster.

"There is no way to remove a horcrux from its container," Dumbledore said. "'Neither can live while the other survives.' That was part of the prophecy."

"What was the rest?" demanded Sirius. "Tell me the rest!"

"'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches . . . born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies'," Snape said slowly.

"How do you know that?" asked Lupin.

"Because Severus was there when Sybill Trelawney made the prophecy," said Dumbledore. "He told Voldemort the part of the prophecy he heard before he was thrown out of the Hog's Head pub."

"You son of a bitch!" Sirius roared, grabbing his wand and pointing it at Snape. "You got them killed! You Death Eater bastard!"

"Sirius, no!" screamed Harriet.

Sirius's wand went flying from his hand and stuck to the ceiling.

"Let's hold plans of homicide for later, please," said Ophelia. "Now, I didn't hear anything in the prophecy Snape recited about neither living while the other survives. Dumbledore, you're holding out on us."

"'And the Dark Lord will mark the child as his equal, but the child will have the power the Dark Lord knows not . . . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives . . . the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.'"

Ophelia gave a snort. "So Voldemort fucked himself twice over. If he hadn't known the prophecy, or knew the whole thing, he wouldn't have accidently created the horcrux in Harriet."

"And all that needs to be done now is find the remaining horcruxes, get the one out of Harriet, destroy them, and then kill Voldemort," Ursula listed off.

"I'm sorry, my dear," Dumbledore said indulgently. "But there is no way to remove a horcrux without destroying what it is attached to. Perhaps if Harriet faced Voldemort, she would have a chance."

"Oh, shut up," snapped Ophelia. "Don't try to get her back under your thumb by saying she has a chance of survival if she faces off against Voldemort. Just because you don't know a way to remove a horcrux doesn't mean there isn't a way. The problem with you people is anything outside your narrow definition of Light is evil and abhorrent and should be irradiated. We keep out options open. Ursula, how diverse are our options? Both our beaus said they would need to see Harriet before making any promises. Margarita, you have a favor with the Devil you could possibly cash in, but that should be a last resort."

"I think I've got a certain geek's contact somewhere," Ursula added. "Maybe his friends on the other side may be interested in assisting us."

"I'd like to avoid his Creepy buddies if we can," said Forsythia. "What about the Ishtars?"

"The Items are sealed," Margarita told her.

"Oh, that's right," Forsythia responded. "I could go back and ask the Goblin King if he has any information. At the very least it will take him off his spree of tossing people into the Bog of Eternal Stench."

"Don't get thrown in yourself," said Ursula.

"So five options right there," said Ophelia.

"Who said you could decide what should be done about Harriet?" Tonks demanded. "She should be taken to the Unspeakables."

"If there is someone who knows something about removing a horcrux, it would be them," Kingsley agreed.

"No!" Dumbledore shouted. "The only way to destroy the horcrux and have Harriet survive is if she challenges Voldemort."

"She'll die!" Sirius yelled. "You said it yourself! There's only a chance she'll survive - not a guarantee."

"I'll try it," Harriet said resolutely.

Everyone turned to her.

"I'll try it their way," Harriet said, looking at the four women of Number Two.

"Harriet, you can't," Hermione started. "It won't work."

"Why?" snapped Harriet. "Because Dumbledore said so?"

"It's much too dangerous," said Mrs. Weasley. "You barely know these women." She said the last part through gritted teeth. "Arthur, back me up!"

"Molly's right," said Mr. Weasley. "You barely know them. Just because they helped you doesn't mean their friends are going to do the same. They could do you harm."

Ursula gave a shrug. "They aren't wrong there. All depends on the mood you catch them in."

"I'm not letting a piece of Voldemort stay in my head," said Harriet.

"Especially if he figures out he can use it to read Harriet's mind and possess her," Ursula added casually.

"What?" cried Harriet. "He could do that?"

Ursula nodded. "It's a fragment of his soul. It may be separate from him, but the connection to it is still there. Why do you think you were having visions all last year? It's a two-way street actually. He could look through your mind and you could look through his."

"Which would be extremely dangerous for one with no experience in the Mind Arts," interjected Dumbledore.

"That's something we can agree on," said Ophelia.

Dumbledore gave a small smile at her comment. "Perhaps we can reach a compromise. Occlumency could stop Voldemort from mentally attacking Harriet."

"And I assume you already have a teacher in mind?" said Ophelia.

"In fact, I do," said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling. "Professor Snape is a very accomplished Occlumens as well as a Legilimens."

Snape glared at Dumbledore, clearly wanting to protest.

"Hell no," Ophelia said before anyone could get a word in. "Having one of you poke around in her head to 'teach' her? Ha! You'd mind rape her until she's little more than a puppet. And I do mean one of you, Dumbledore. You're a Legilimens, too. I've felt you trying to poke around in my head numerous times already. Be grateful I've only been directing you to the Pantone color index."

Sirius turned to Ophelia. "You said you know people who could help Harriet?"

Ophelia nodded. "We have connections and it's a possibility. We can't make promises."

"But you're willing to try," said Sirius. "Please, help her."

A few people, mostly the Weasleys, let out cries of protests.

"Sirius," Lupin began.

"I know, Moony, it's stupid, but I won't have Voldemort live in Harriet's head rent-free!" Sirius shouted. "We have to do something!"

"I don't want Voldemort in her head any more than you do," Lupin responded. "But you need to think this through."

"What more is there to think about?" Sirius demanded to know. "Voldemort is in her head and can possibly possess her. We need to get him out!"

"I agree with Sirius," said Harriet. "I want him gone."

Lupin sighed. "All right."

"Any assistance by these young women will have to wait until school begins and Harriet is at Hogwarts," said Dumbledore.

"Why?" asked Sirius.

"We cannot simply let just anyone into the house, especially people we do not know," said Dumbledore.

"Then let Harriet meet them on neutral ground," said Sirius.

"Which Hogwarts is," said Dumbledore.

"Bullshit it is," retorted Ophelia. "Hogwarts is your territory. There's nothing neutral about it. You'll just lock Harriet up there with walking Wikipedia and the gold-digging hanger-on to twist her back under your thumb, not unlike locking Sirius up in his own house."

Ron went red in the face while Hermione puffed up like a cat.

"Wikipedia?" she asked angrily.

"Questionably accurate and easily edited," Ophelia told her absently.

"Sirius is a wanted man," said Dumbledore.

"Whose fault is that?" Ophelia asked. "You could have helped him way back when to get a trial, but that wasn't part of your grand plan. And who are you to tell Harriet what she can and can't do? Who are you to tell what Lord Black can and cannot do for Harriet, especially in his own house?"

A grin spread across Sirius's face. He turned to Harriet and whispered in her ear. "I have an idea, but you need to trust me."

Harriet could see the glint of mischief in his eyes. "I trust you," she whispered back.

"What are you two whispering about?" Ron demanded to know.

Sirius looked at him with a sneer. "How you are not going to get Harriet's money."

"How dare you!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked.

"There's that phrase again," Ursula commented.

"We're trying to look out for Harriet," Mrs. Weasley went on. "You can barely take care of yourself. What makes you think you know what's best for Harriet?"

"I'm not the one trying to get her hitched to her son so she can get her greedy hands on her money," Sirius retorted.

"A horcrux is not something to mess around with," Lupin started. "It needs to be removed and destroyed. The sooner, the better. I, for one, would prefer not to wait for the school year to begin to start trying ideas."

"I am sorry that you feel that way," said Dumbledore. "However there are things that must be done for the greater good."

"And what are you going to do about it, Dumbledore?" Ophelia challenged.

The atmosphere of the room changed. It felt like someone was trying to cast the Imperius Curse on her without her knowledge, a voice whispering in her ear that she must obey whatever the headmaster said next. She shook off the feeling.

"I would rather not have to do anything about it," said Dumbledore. "Harriet would be most distraught if something happened to Sirius because he would not listen to reason."

Harriet stiffened and Sirius moved to block her from Dumbledore's view.

Ophelia grinned wickedly. "Oh? And whose reason would he not listen to? Yours?"

"Young Sirius Black can be very impulsive," said Dumbledore, speaking like Sirius wasn't there at all.

Harriet frowned angrily, but a gesture from Forsythia made her hold her tongue.

"He has been wanting to leave the house, but he must stay in hiding," Dumbledore went on. "If he is caught by the Aurors, he will be Kissed by the Dementors."

"And would those Aurors be the ones in your Order and on your payroll?" Ophelia asked.

Dumbledore said nothing, just looked at Ophelia calmly with his grandfatherly facade.

Lupin looked around the table. "You all know he's innocent."

Harriet looked around at the stony faces of the Order members. They were all looking at Sirius with disapproval and anger. She did notice that the twins weren't glaring at Sirius, but were rather just as uncomfortable and worried as she was.

"And it would sadden her more if young Remus would be arrested for aiding and abetting a mass murderer," Dumbledore continued. "A werewolf won't last long in Azkaban." He turned to Lupin. "It's very disappointing. I've done so much for you."

Lupin pulled back in horror.

"You think I'll just listen to you because they're gone?" hissed Harriet. "If anything happens to them, I'll know it was you who set them up."

"No, you won't, my dear girl, not after a Memory Charm," said Dumbledore. "You'll grieve them and take comfort in your best friends. Ronald will be your rock. Perhaps you'll develop feelings for him. Young love is such a beautiful thing."

Harriet's face twisted in disgust.

"And us?" Ophelia asked, amused. "What would you do with us?"

"Dark witches such as you shouldn't be running around unsupervised," said Dumbledore. "You will be arrested for using one of the Unforgivables and sent to Azkaban."

The four women of Number Two laughed.

"You find that funny?" Dumbledore asked serenely.

"Oh yes, I find it hilarious," said Ophelia. "You think we're intimidated by you and your Order. You believe you're this great wizard who can do anything you want because you are the leader of the Light, the one Voldemort fears, and you think that scares us."

Ophelia suddenly jumped out of her chair. All traces of twisted humor were gone and she focused in on Dumbledore with a cold expression. The other three women subtly shifted their positions, readying themselves for a fight.

"We've fought opponents stronger than you," Ophelia stated aggressively. "We've fucked males stronger than you. You do not scare us."

Dumbledore's face twisted in anger. "Harriet will sacrifice herself to Voldemort!" he roared, getting out of his seat. "And no upstart foreigners will tell me what I will do!"

Ophelia grinned victoriously. "I was waiting for you to say that."

Dumbledore's face fell.

"Trust me!" Sirius whispered to Harriet.

He then jumped up to his feet. "I, Sirius Black, expel those who are not Marauders from Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place!"

Magic surged and Harriet found herself falling on the sidewalk outside of Number Twelve. A pair of hands pulled her up.

"Up! Up!" Margarita said urgently in her ear.

Harriet got to her feet and saw everyone sprawled out on the ground outside of Number Twelve. The only two she did not see were Sirius and Lupin.

"He can't do this to us!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked.

There was a dark laugh, not from Ophelia or Ursula, but from Forsythia. "To quote a friend: What's said is said."

The Weasley matriarch turned to the blonde and flung a spell at her.

Harriet couldn't see what happened next as Margarita spun her around and started to run.

"What about the others?" Harriet asked her.

She heard two cracks of Apparation.

"Get Harriet!" Dumbledore bellowed at the Order.

She could hear them yelling and spells making impact on things behind them.

"Don't worry about the others," said Margarita as Mrs. Weasley screamed Ron's name in horror.

Harriet was about to say something more when she heard Ophelia shout, "Tell the Iron Maiden we'll see her soon!"

"Got it!" Margarita hollered back.

"What –" Harriet started to ask, but Margarita pulled her along as she picked up the pace.

"Meeting place," answered Margarita. "Now run!"

Margarita pushed Harriet ahead and Harriet ran as fast as she could.

Glancing behind her, Harriet saw Margarita jogging backwards and deflecting spells with a shield of magic. She then dropped the shield and threw two balls of energy at the people chasing them. Margarita then turned around and took Harriet by the arm.

"That'll keep them busy," she told her. "Let's get out of here."

Harriet took Margarita's hand and let the athletic woman practically drag her along as they ran for their destination.

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**So did you enjoy your treat and your trick? And did you find all the "candy"? I hope you liked it. Leave your thoughts on the review board and I'll be back with a new chapter sometime in November. **


	5. Chapter 5

**So this is a rewritten author's note, there is no new content in this chapter. This chapter was originally posted on November 6, 2019 with the intention of being an epilogue chapter. That is no longer the case as there is now a sixth chapter. ****I never intended this story to be so long. It was originally only meant to be a long one-shot and it took on a mind of it's own. This is the original ending that I had in mind but I have now written more to it. ****I would like to thank you all for your support. Never before have I had a story this popular. The only thing that comes close to this for me is my _Danny Phantom_ story titled _His Body_ and even that wasn't that big of a hit when it started out. This time we have a scavenger hunt with eleven Easter eggs hidden in here. Have fun finding them all and enjoy the chapter.**

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She was barely aware of someone quietly playing a piano as she woke up. It took her a moment to remember where she was. It was a nightclub. The four women had rented it out for Ophelia's makeup collection release party and Harriet's sixteenth birthday.

It had almost been a year since Harriet's trial, the discovery of her manipulation, and her escape with the four women. It had been an eventful and exciting time in a mostly good way. So much had happened and there were times when Harriet believed that it was all a dream and she would wake up back with the Dursleys or at Hogwarts.

After their ejection from Number Twelve, Margarita had led Harriet far away from the house and the Order before ducking into an empty alley and transporting them both to the front door of a large mansion. Margarita told Harriet to stay close as the mansion was rigged full of traps for intruders. The butler let them in and a meeting was arranged with the master of the house, a stern young woman who introduced herself as Sir Hellsing. Margarita was quick to tell the woman what happened and why they were there. The other three women joined them after about an hour, Ophelia and Ursula looking very pleased with themselves. Harriet had to laugh when Ophelia informed her that she had taken the liberty of turning Ron into a pig, hence why Mrs. Weasley had screamed as she did. She laughed harder when Ursula added that the wizards wouldn't be able to remove the spell for the rest of the day and even then it would be difficult, similar to how Moody had difficulty taking off the Disillusionment Charm Ursula had placed on Harriet when she left Number Two. Ophelia also let slip that she turned Hermione into a squirrel and only managed to partially turn Dumbledore into a goat since he had thrown up a shield to defend himself. Like Ron, they would be suffering the effects for the rest of the day. Harriet told them she wished she had seen that and Ophelia held up her phone. Everyone got a kick out of the pictures Ophelia had taken, especially seeing Dumbledore with goat horns. When Harriet mentioned that the twins and Sirius would have loved to see that, she worried about what happened to them. Forsythia informed her that the twins Apparated out just as the fight began.

Sir Hellsing invited them to stay for the evening, saying that they could consult with "him" when he woke up, whoever "him" was. Harriet was allowed in the mansion's library and ended up falling asleep in the chair with a book in her lap. She was awoken after sunset to a cool hand on her forehead and someone dressed in red looming over her. She let out a scream and the man laughed, showing far too many pointed teeth to be human. He made a comment about her spirit when she called him a jerk and glared at him for scaring her awake before melting into the shadows and disappearing. Ophelia told Harriet after they left that the man wasn't a man, but The No-Life King and that Sir Hellsing had told him to check the horcrux in Harriet's scar to determine if he could do anything about. The short answer was no, but he was certainly interested in the young witch which had Sir Hellsing a little concerned for Harriet's safety.

After they left, they went to a pub in London for supper and met with John. He was a scruffy looking blonde in a tan trench coat and had an easy-going personality until the subject of Harriet's horcrux was brought up. He became serious and told them he could try to exorcise it out, but he was worried about the strain on Harriet as she had had the horcrux in her for almost her entire life. He was willing to give it a try as a last resort, but since it was no immediate threat to Harriet he wanted to look for other options. John did suggest taking her to Jason as he had more firepower as he put it and Ophelia told him that was their next stop.

Ophelia left the pub and came back a little while later with a box of chocolates. She then took Harriet across London, the other three women planning to sneak back into Number Two to get their stuff before leaving. The large house the taxi dropped them off in front of reminded Harriet of something out of a horror movie Dudley watched and the stoic man who greeted them at the door only cemented it. The white streak in his red hair was the only indication of his age, but Harriet felt that he was much older than he appeared. Ophelia handed off the chocolates to him when he invited them inside.

Jason's examination of Harriet went horribly. He had used a spell to prod at the horcrux to see how difficult it would be to remove. The horcrux clearly didn't like anything trying to remove it and lashed out. Jason was fine, but Harriet screamed at the searing sensation in her scar. After that, Jason didn't try to test it any further and Harriet slept off the migraine on his sofa. In the morning Harriet overheard Jason and Ophelia talking about the horcrux. Jason was in agreement with John that because the horcrux had been there for so long, it would be very dangerous trying to separate it from Harriet. Ophelia mentioned that Ursula had a contact that could potentially help them in Scotland. When Harriet and Ophelia were leaving, Jason wished Harriet the best and he would continue searching for a way to remove the horcrux.

Harriet and Ophelia met up with the others at King's Cross, taking a non-magi train to Scotland to meet with Ursula's contact. Harriet had been nervous about going towards Hogwarts instead of trying to get away from it, but the four women didn't seem too concerned about it. On the way there, Ursula told Ophelia that the Order never checked Privet Drive for Harriet and that they could have stayed at Number Two. Margarita made a comment about them probably being too busy trying to remove the spells they cast to remember that they were Harriet's neighbors.

When they reached their destination, they checked in to a luxury hotel. They wouldn't be able to meet Ursula's contact for a few days, but they didn't let the time go to waste. Ophelia was usually on her phone or laptop. Harriet learned that her non-magi day job was in cosmetics and she was in the process of planning a new collection. Ursula was working on a project of her own involving an intricate curse and searching for a way to undo it without severe consequences. Margarita and Forsythia took it upon themselves to keep Harriet's mind off of worrying about Sirius, Remus, and the twins by giving her lessons not just in magic, but also in non-magical subjects since wizards typically neglected them. The morning after they checked in, Hedwig appeared carrying Harriet's shrunken trunk and a letter from Sirius and Remus. They wrote that they were fine, but they were on the run. After Sirius threw everyone out of the house – which Sirius apologized multiple times for doing that to Harriet in the letter – they grabbed everything they could and got out on Buckbeak, knowing Dumbledore would break the Fidelius Charm and then get to work on the house's protections to get to Sirius and Remus. They didn't mention where they were at all because they were worried that Hedwig could possibly be intercepted, but they did mention that the Ministry was looking for both of them now. With the letter was a special edition of the _Daily Prophet_ with Sirius's and Remus's pictures on the front, stating that the mass murderer now had a werewolf accomplice and that people should contact the Aurors immediately if they were seen. The article also added that Sirius was an illegal Animagus and took the form of a Grim. Harriet screamed and cursed Dumbledore for betraying Sirius and Remus, the four women just simply watching as she ranted. Nothing was said about the twins in the letter and there was nothing to suggest they were involved with Sirius and Remus in the _Daily Prophet_. Harriet wondered what would happen to Fred and George if the Order was after them.

A few days later, Ursula took Harriet to a pub to meet with her contact. He went by Geek and he was one of those people you could easily walk by and not realize someone was there. Harriet would have walked passed him if Ursula hadn't pointed his table out to her. He was a little fidgety when the subject of the horcrux was brought up. He was only the middleman to the party who could possibly help Harriet and couldn't make any promises if they could actually help her. He did reveal that the boss expressed interest in meeting her. Ursula wasn't happy, but agreed the boss should meet Harriet. Geek said he would take Harriet and that the boss wanted to meet her alone. Ursula asked Harriet if she was comfortable with the idea. Harriet wasn't, but she was willing to do what she had to in order to get Voldemort out of her.

Geek drove her out to a heavily wooded area with no one around for miles. Harriet was on edge the whole trip. It only got worse when he pulled off to the side of the road and told her to get out and put a blindfold on. Geek swore he was only doing this because the people he was taking her to did not want to be seen. And while he was being honest with her, he told her she wouldn't want to see what they looked like either. They weren't the sort of people one wanted to remember. So against her better judgement, Harriet put the blindfold on and allowed Geek to lead her into the forest with only the advice of not to say anything and don't show any fear.

She wasn't sure how long they were walking for or how many times she stubbed her toes on a rock or something when she started getting a headache and her ears would buzz. Harriet told Geek she wanted to stop because of her headache was getting worse, but Geek told her they were almost there, reminding her it was best to stay quiet. She was then startled when Geek let out a yell and shouted at someone for scaring him. After laughing off the scare, Geek told Harriet to be careful if she took a step back because Hoodie was behind her. Harriet turned her head even though she couldn't see and almost jumped out of her skin when someone who wasn't Geek put their hand on her shoulder to keep her still. Off to her left, Geek spoke to a man whose voice was a bit muffled, like he was wearing a mask. They talked for a few moments about the boss, whoever that was.

Harriet's ears rang loudly and she quickly covered them, fighting the urge to throw up. The hand on her shoulder steadied her when she pitched forward and wretched. From the sound of it, Geek was throwing up off to her right. The man with the muffled voice greeted someone, calling them boss, but got no response. A cold hand lifted Harriet's chin and a finger poked at her scar. Harriet shuddered at her scar prickling at the person's touch. The newcomer began to speak, his voice filling Harriet's head and making it impossible to ignore. He stated that if he tried to remove the horcrux that it could make Harriet snap, whatever that meant. He did ask Geek if there were any other soul fragments Voldemort made. Geek wasn't sure, relaying what Ursula, and by proxy Harriet, told him about the diary that had been destroyed, but they were certain there were a few. While they spoke, Harriet could feel someone else stalking her. A sharp blade grazed her arms, face, and neck, not enough to do any sort of damage, but to scare her. Someone whispered in her ear that she looked tired and it was time to sleep. The one called Hoodie pulled her back and she heard a fist hit flesh before the boss scolded the one with the knife, telling him to return to the mansion. While Geek's people couldn't help her, the boss did inform Harriet that they would be on the hunt for any more horcruxes and would take the appropriate measures to destroy them and inform her when they did. Harriet almost asked how they would find her, but the boss cut her off before she could say anything and said they had their ways of finding people. Harriet's ears rang loudly once again and they were gone, leaving only her and Geek in the forest. Geek led her back to the car where he took her blindfold off. With a pale face, he told her that couldn't have gone much better and that he was sorry they couldn't get the soul fragment out of her. Harriet did ask a few questions about what they were talking about, but Geek told her there were some things that were best left unknown.

The next stop for Harriet was Japan. Forsythia had managed to get into contact with an acquaintance of hers that knew of a woman who lived in mountains who could possibly remove the horcrux without hurting Harriet. They took non-magi transportation, meaning Harriet got to fly in a plane for the first time. It wasn't the same as riding her Firebolt, but she didn't mind it so much. They were met at the airport by a group of teenagers a little older than Harriet. Most of them didn't speak English very well and Harriet knew next to no Japanese – she had studied a few phrases on the plane. Forsythia's acquaintance, a young man with long red hair and eyes almost as green as Harriet's spoke perfect English and was willing to act as translator for her. After a train ride and a bus ride to the mountains, they walked up the long flight of stairs to a temple where the woman resided. Harriet stayed close to Margarita most of the time. There was something about the group of teens that put her on edge, especially the shortest boy who was dressed in a black cloak and had his hair sticking straight up. He never said much, just gave a grunt during introductions and stared at her from time to time, not caring that he was making her uncomfortable.

Harriet wasn't sure what to think of the little old woman with the pink hair when they reached the temple. She reminded her a little of McGonagall, but the comparison went away when the old woman punched one of the teenage boys for disrespectfully calling her grandma. The boy in green got into a verbal fight with her before it came to blows, the teen losing miserably. The old woman turned to Harriet and told her in perfect English that she could help her, but it would not be painless. And it wasn't. Harriet couldn't remember much before, during, or after the horcrux's removal, but she remembered the pain. She spent the first day after the removal in bed with the four women and the old woman checking in on her now and then. After the pain went away, the only side effect Harriet had was disequilibrium that had her stumbling around when she wanted to walk. Most of the time someone would come and help her around the temple.

They stayed a week at the temple until Harriet got most of her equilibrium back. Most of Harriet's time was spent learning about Japanese culture and more of the language. Hedwig arrived halfway through the week with a letter from Fred and George. They were staying in Hogsmeade until school started, saying the closer they were to danger, the farther they were from harm. With the horcrux gone and no longer under anyone's thumb, the four women wanted Harriet to celebrate. Harriet didn't know what to say about it. On one hand she wanted to celebrate her freedom, but on the other she was too worried about Sirius and Remus to feel like celebrating. The women understood what she was going through, but told her not to dwell on it. Since Harriet hadn't picked something to do to celebrate, the four decided to take her to an amusement park.

The amusement park they took her to was in a game obsessed town. It was a common thing to see teens and young adults playing a card game on portable hologram projectors strapped to their wrists. Harriet learned she was not a fan of spinning rides, but didn't mind rollercoasters. After leaving the amusement park, Harriet asked about the game the locals seemed to be very into. Ophelia took her to a shop called Kame Game where the owner, an old man who shamelessly tried to flirt with the four women, was happy to explain the popular game. He admitted his grandson was much better at the game, but he was out with friends at the time. Harriet didn't think she could get into the game, but she liked the art on the cards. However a different game caught her eye. It was similar to the more popular card game with different creatures, but something about it made it feel like it was more her speed. Perhaps it was because the creatures were divided into four tribes and it reminded her of Hogwarts. The owner gave her a discount on the cards and a handheld so she could also play the game online. It was because of this that Harriet would eventually meet friends her age.

They spent the rest of the summer in Japan going from city to city. Harriet's Japanese was not the best, but she learned enough to get around on her own and make some new friends. Friends who introduced her to new things. Harriet never knew how much she was missing out. Movies, technology, music, oh music! She thanked Ophelia profusely when the woman introduced her to Finnish operatic symphonic metal. Harriet spent hours listening to songs about the owl, the dead boy, and the poet. But it wasn't all fun and games. Every night the five of them would sit around a table and lecture while Harriet took notes. One of the first things she learned was that a wand was a crutch. To get her to stop relying on it, Ursula locked it in her trunk. Harriet was performing wandless magic two days later.

In September, they went to South Korea for a week where Harriet discovered she liked K-pop. After that, Ophelia and Ursula had business in America they needed to take care of. They flew to the United States while Margarita and Forsythia took Harriet to New Zealand to continue lessons under the guise of backpacking. Forsythia taught her Earth Magic, which was anything that had to do with plants, rocks, bodies of water, and even planetary cycles and how magic could be affected by them. Margarita taught both healing and battle magic, something that Harriet would one day need to use.

At the end of October, the backpacking trio flew to America to meet with Ophelia and Ursula in Portland, Oregon. Harriet had some interesting experiences in Portland. The first day they were there, Forsythia asked her to go to a particular spice shop to pick up a few things. Harriet realized from the list that it wasn't something one could pick up at the supermarket. She went to the shop and picked up what Forsythia wanted. When she was leaving, a man came in and demanded the woman for Jay. The woman told him to get out, but he wouldn't leave. The man got violent, jumping across the counter and trying to choke her. Harriet came to her rescue, punching the man in the head with a magically enhanced blow. It knocked him out and he dropped to the floor. For a brief second, Harriet was sure the shop owner's face looked like that of a fox, but her features returned to normal when she blinked. Harriet had to give a statement to the police, one of the detectives being a friend of the shop owner. Harriet went back to the hotel room to find the women entertaining a guest.

On Halloween, Harriet had her first experience trick or treating. Ursula dressed up as Morticia Addams and had Harriet dress up as Wednesday and they walked around a neighborhood looking at Halloween decorations. One house in particular was completely covered in decorations and kids were running up to the house where a man dressed up as a skeleton was handing out candy. Seeing them, the man waved them over and gave Harriet a full-sized candy bar. As they turned to leave, Harriet noticed the man sniffing the air similar to how she had seen Remus do in the past. Something about the man struck her as wolf-like, but she was certain he wasn't a werewolf.

They spent winter in California. Harriet began assisting Ophelia with her makeup collection, becoming interested in how things were produced. Ophelia had Harriet helping her chose colors, formulas, shade names, and packaging options. Harriet basically became Ophelia's assistant in the lab. Around Christmas time they heard from Sirius and Remus. They had asylum in Canada and were trying to get Sirius a proper trial to clear his name. However it wasn't easy with the British Ministry stonewalling any outsider trying to gather evidence. They were more concerned about the deaths of some prominent purebloods. Someone had taken to killing them in creative and violent fashions. A few were missing organs, two had their faces carved up, and one had been stuffed full of colorful candies. On Christmas morning, Harriet found a box on the doorstep of the house they were staying at addressed to her. She opened it up and found the severed head of Voldemort's snake and a note.

_This makes three._

Harriet would receive several more of these messages through email, but no more severed heads.

After the New Year began, Harriet found herself playing the game she found in Japan more and more. She entered a few tournaments, lost, but she made friends. They constantly encouraged her to do better and said if she did, there was the potential she would get a code to use only select players got and she could be part of the club. Harriet waved off the idea of being part of a club as she was happy with what she was doing now. However she did invite them all to her birthday party.

Which was where she was now. Ophelia had reserved a nightclub for the makeup collection reveal party which they mashed with Harriet's sixteenth birthday. The club owner had allowed Harriet and her four friends into his penthouse where they could play video games and have cake away from the adults. They had played various games until midnight when they started to fall asleep. Harriet was the last one up and had gone downstairs to see if the party was still going on. It had been winding down, but a few people congratulated her on her work on the Magical Arts, the name Ophelia's makeup collection. Many people were excited to try out the palette, loving how all the shade names were witch themed, such as Black Cat, Eye of Newt, and Cobweb. The club owner had been entertaining the remaining guests by playing piano and Harriet had joined them, only to fall asleep on the long seating bench.

The piano stopped.

"We should take her upstairs," a woman's voice whispered.

Harriet couldn't tell who that was.

"I'll take her," said a posh British voice.

Harriet knew that voice to belong to the club owner. He picked her up from the seating bench. Harriet groaned.

"Go back to sleep, birthday girl," he told her.

"Birthday over," Harriet slurred.

"But the sun has not risen. The day has not started."

Harriet made a sound of protest.

"Ah, ah. I am the Devil and I do not lie," said the club owner.

Harriet didn't put up anymore fuss, just fell back to sleep on his shoulder.

The bell of the elevator woke her up again. The club owner laid her on one of the sofas.

From another sofa was a loud grunt. "Come back with my cheese fries, Danian," was what was said, followed by a loud snore.

"Shut up, Peyton," came the sleepy voice of the only other girl in the room.

Harriet giggled. "Thank you," she whispered.

"For what?" asked the club owner.

"For this. This is the best birthday I ever had."

There was silence for a moment.

"You're welcome. Is there anything else you desire, birthday girl?"

Harriet thought for a moment. "Could you play a bit more?" she asked hesitantly.

"If that is what you desire."

She heard him move to the piano in the room and began playing "Clair de Lune" quietly. She rolled over. "Best birthday ever."

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**Let me know what you think of this. Thank you again for your support into my first foray into Harry_ Potter_ fanfiction. Maybe one day I will do another _Harry Potter_ story, but not in the foreseeable future. For now I'm going back to _Quote the Pauper Forevermore_. If you want to see what I'm up to, I keep a schedule of what is planned and posted on my profile page and I am usually pretty good at keeping it updated.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Allow me to begin this with an apology. I apologize for how the previous chapter turned out. I won't make excuses because I doubt there is any way I can explain was what going on in my head when I thought it was a good idea. I cannot remember the last time readers were this angry with me over a chapter and it was not just one or two of you either. The day after I posted the previous chapter and started getting feedback, I knew I had to do another chapter to at least bring some more closure. This possibly won't appease all of you, but I couldn't just let this story as it was. Now there is another scavenger hunt in here with eleven things to find. Please enjoy the honest to goodness final chapter of _Harriet Potter and the Four Witches_.**

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Harriet Potter slept in a queen-sized bed surrounded by pillows and blankets. The room was decorated in cool grays and blues, posters of her favorite bands covering the walls, pictures of her friends from around the world sitting on her nightstand and vanity, and figurines and trinkets she had collected sitting on tall book shelves filled with books on different subjects both magical and non-magical. In addition to the sunlight filtering through her curtains, the room was dimly illuminated by the fairy lights hanging in the corners, catching the reflective paint of the stars on her night sky themed ceiling. By the window was Hedwig's perch and cage, both unoccupied.

She was now living in Florida, having moved when the four women bought a house there. Since September of last year she had been taking online classes to get caught up on all the non-magical schooling she had missed. At night, one of the four women would tutor her. Already she had completed her O.W.L. equivalent and was on track to graduate high school with others her age. She may not have taken her N.E.W.T. equivalent, but already she had earned her place with the masters, having found the crucial piece of the solution to the curse Ursula had been trying to break for the past couple of years. Those who had been under the curse had thanked them all in their own ways. One of the formerly cursed was a coworker of Nee-san's and had him pick out a luxury handbag like the four women had. Nee-san had chosen a crocodile bag in a shade of indigo for Harriet saying, the color was a good representation of their coworker.

"_A nightingale in a golden cage, that's me locked inside reality's maze!_"

Harriet jolted awake to her phone going off. She fumbled around for a moment before finding the offending device and turning off the alarm. She got up and went over to her vanity to start getting ready for the day. She brushed out her hair, which she had been growing out. It now formed fluffy wisps and curls. She moved on to her eye makeup. It was nice not having to wear glasses anymore or hold a mirror up close to her face to see what she was doing. She had her sight corrected as a gift from the four women for her seventeenth birthday. Her famous scar was almost nonexistent now that the horcrux had been removed. Margarita said it would fade with time, but there was the option of cosmetic surgery if Harriet wanted it. She knew of someone who practiced magical cosmetic surgery in Beverly Hills. Right now Harriet didn't mind how she looked. She already looked so much different than she had when she lived in England.

Her phone chimed, alerting her that she had an email. She reached over to see who it was from, thinking it was just an ad from a store. Instead it was from Geek with the subject line: _Found It_.

Harriet stared at the words. For the last two years, Geek and his associates had been searching for the horcruxes and destroying them. What methods they were using, Geek did not reveal and since the "gift" of Voldemort's snake's head delivered to her on Christmas, she wasn't sure she wanted to know their methods. The boss had discovered Voldemort made seven horcruxes in total. How he figured that out, Harriet didn't know and didn't ask. Ursula said three and seven were powerful numbers in magic and it made sense Voldemort made so many, the power-hungry man he was. Three more had been found and destroyed by Geek's associates, leaving only one that they were having a hard time trying to find, but apparently the boss had located it. Harriet opened the email.

_So the boss found the last one. And you're gonna love this. It's here in Scotland, in a magical place, where moldable children go to be trained to be wand wielding morons - Hogwarts, for the ignorant. But we've run into some problems. The guys who don't have magic can't get in and those who qualify as magical can't get in because they fall into the category of Dark. Don't worry though. When the boss goes after something, he gets it. Might take him a while, but it never escapes him. That's all I know at this point, but I'll keep you updated._

Harriet put her phone down and finished getting dressed.

She went downstairs and found Sirius and Remus already eating at the kitchen table. The two of them had been hiding in Canada from the British Ministry and the Order of the Phoenix until six months ago. Sirius was finally a free man from the British Ministry as they could not produce any evidence of his guilt. When the British Ministry argued he broke out of Azkaban and that was a crime, the Canadian government said the British falsely imprisoned someone and Sirius wouldn't see the inside of a cell because he had already served time for their screw up. Even though he was a free man, the Order of the Phoenix still wanted Sirius and Remus for turning their backs on them. Both were now in America on visas working for Ophelia as bodyguards when she traveled to promote her makeup line.

"Good morning," Harriet greeted.

"Good morning," Remus responded with a smile. He was looking well. Margarita had started him on a different potion that managed lycanthropy symptoms better than the Wolfsbane potion. Remus had fewer gray hairs and looked more his age. The nights of the full moon were still a rough time, but it was more bearable.

"Hey, pup," said Sirius. "You know you look like a teen movie witch like that."

Harriet had recently been liking the look of a white shirt under a black jacket and mini-skirt with a studded belt and chunky heels. She was also wearing a gold ankh necklace, a gift from her game loving friends in Japan. With her heavy black liner and dark red lips along with her hair, she did look like a teen witch from a 90s movie.

"Ha-ha," she responded sarcastically.

"Did you sleep at all?" asked Remus.

"About three hours," said Harriet, heading for the coffee pot.

"Must have been having fun last night," snickered Sirius. "I heard you screaming a few times."

"Ben scared me," Harriet explained with a pout. "He knows I hate going up against beads Spirit. It took me three rounds to figure out he was forcing me into his lobbies to mess with me, the hacker. I don't know how he does it."

She sat down with her coffee and went quiet.

"What's wrong, Harriet," Remus asked.

"Geek emailed me," she told them. "He said they found the last horcrux."

"They did? Where is it?" Sirius asked eagerly.

"At Hogwarts."

Both men stared at her.

"You're joking," said Sirius.

"Your luck," Remus said with a shake of his head.

"I know," Harriet moaned.

"So what are they going to do?" asked Sirius. "They've managed to get the other ones."

Harriet shook her head. "The ones who have magic can't get in because they are Dark. And of course the non-magical ones can't get onto the grounds."

"Dark is a subjective term," said Sirius. "Look at Remus."

Harriet chose not to say anything about how applicable the term may be to Geek's associates.

"Have you heard from the twins?" asked Sirius.

"Hedwig hasn't come back yet," said Harriet.

Fred and George had been feeding them information on the Order and the British Wizarding World in general for the last year. After Apparating away from Number Twelve, they hid out at Hogsmeade until school started. They came up with a story to tell Dumbledore that they were afraid of what their mother would do to them because she was so angry the last time they saw her that they thought she would take it out on them. Dumbledore accepted the twins back into the Order, saying they could be full members once they graduated even though they were already of age and he would speak to Mrs. Weasley about them joining the Order as she was afraid of losing more of her sons. Apparently after it came to light what Dumbledore and the some of the Weasleys were doing, Bill cut ties with his family and not long after Charlie did the same. They were still part of the Order in regards of recruiting and fighting the Death Eaters, but they wanted nothing else to do with the rest of the family. Dumbledore tried to get them to forgive and reconcile with the rest of their family, but Bill and Charlie threatened to leave entirely.

The twins were unable to get any information to Harriet until after they graduated as all their mail was being watched by the first and only High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, Delores Umbridge, the toad-like witch from Harriet's trial. She was the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor that year and she was absolutely horrible. She just had students read from useless textbooks, never had them practice the spells, and tortured them for disagreeing with her. And it was torture. Fred and George along with many other students had scars on their hands from the illegal blood quills she liked to use on students to write lines in her detentions. She had Dumbledore thrown out and became headmistress until the end of the school year when the people administering the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. tests saw almost everyone failing Defense Against the Dark Arts practical. Seeing as she couldn't do the job she was appointed to, she was removed from her position, but not without kicking and screaming. Dumbledore was reinstated and everything was business as usual at Hogwarts again.

Once Fred and George were able to join the Order fully, they started sending messages to Harriet in the guise of mail order catalogues from their joke shop. They told her Voldemort knew someone was destroying his horcruxes and killing off his Death Eaters. The Ministry was in a panic at the violent and gruesome deaths of several purebloods, all of who were suspected of being Death Eaters. Fudge continued to deny Voldemort's return and had every Auror searching for the killer of the purebloods to appease the people and to keep his position. The Order did not know who could be committing the murders, but they were opposed to them as Dumbledore said killing wasn't the answer and everyone should have another chance to come to the Light.

Ophelia walked into the kitchen in a bathrobe. She took in the serious mood. "Well I know I don't look my best, but do I really look so bad this morning?"

Sirius turned to her and grinned. "Of course not, gorgeous! How can one so beautiful find herself ugly?"

"Oh, stop, you," she said playfully. "But really, what's wrong?"

Harriet filled her in on Geek contacting her and what they had been talking about.

Ophelia hummed. "Sounds like we need to break into Hogwarts."

"We?" repeated Remus.

"Who else?" Ophelia asked. "Harriet just told us that Geek's associates can't get in, so why not do it ourselves? Besides, I'm sure Dumbledore would love seeing me again."

Harriet laughed. "I'm sure he would."

A tapping on the window got their attention. Hedwig was sitting outside on the sill holding a catalogue in her talons. Harriet quickly opened the window and took the catalogue from her. The snowy owl flew over to the table and took a piece of bacon from Sirius's plate.

Harriet flipped through the catalogue to find the order form. She recited the Marauders' Vow and the twins' hidden letter appeared. They wrote that Voldemort was planning on making a move on Hogwarts. The Order was preparing for battle, but they didn't have many people and would have to rely on the students to fight with them. Voldemort did not have as many followers either. Even after the break out at Azkaban two years ago, Snape reported Voldemort's forces were small, having taken a hit because of the murders. Only the most loyal stayed with him now, others having fled to keep themselves alive for a little while longer as Voldemort would not let them live for their desertion. The twins didn't know when the attack would be, but they were already making preparations.

Harriet threw the letter on the table. Ophelia picked it up and read over it.

"What did they write?" Sirius asked.

Harriet got up from the table and began to leave the room.

"What's wrong?" Remus asked.

"I need to call Geek," Harriet told him. "And I'm going to pack. It looks like I'm going back to school."

Remus and Sirius stared at her.

"Back to Hogwarts?" asked Sirius. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with Britain's Wizarding World."

"I'm not going to let the Order turn the students into child soldiers like they tried to do with me," said Harriet.

Both men were horrified. "What?"

"She's right," said Ophelia, not looking up from the letter. "Voldemort's planning on attacking Hogwarts and since Dumbledore can't get the support he needs to fight, he's going to use the students."

"He can't!" cried Remus.

"Tell him that," said Ophelia. "He does whatever he damn well pleases. Haven't you figured that out yet?"

"We need to get the horcrux from Hogwarts, destroy it, and kill Voldemort before he and the Death Eaters can attack Hogwarts," said Harriet. "It's probably why Voldemort's going back to Hogwarts - his last horcrux is there. He's willing to risk going up against Dumbledore to get it."

"How?" asked Remus.

"Sneak in, of course," said Sirius. "How many times have we snuck in and out? It's not hard."

Remus shook his head. "It won't be like those times. He'll be warding every entrance into Hogwarts against Voldemort and the Death Eaters."

"Ah! Against Voldemort and the Death Eaters, not to us," said Ophelia. "Besides, the old goat still wants Harriet. He wouldn't ward Hogwarts against her."

"Or Snape," added Harriet. "You have to wonder how good those wards are if he can get into Hogwarts."

"Even so, you can't just sneak in," said Remus. "The wards will alert him as soon as you come through an entrance."

"Only if the entrance is warded," said Harriet. "Does he know of all the secret passages in and out of Hogwarts?"

"Dumbledore's been at Hogwarts for a long time," said Remus. "I'm sure he does."

"Then you'll need a diversion," said Ophelia. "If Dumbledore is too distracted with more pressing matters, you could get in without him knowing right away."

"If he knows Harriet's in Hogwarts, you wouldn't be able to make a diversion big enough to distract him from her," said Remus.

Sirius stared at Remus in disbelief. "Do you have a pulse?"

"I feel like I should be insulted," added Ophelia. "You don't think the girls and I can't make a big enough diversion?"

"I can use the passage at Honeydukes," Harriet cut in to put them back on topic.

"And then what?" asked Remus. "Hogwarts is enormous and you don't know what you're looking for. The horcrux could be anything."

"I'm hoping Geek might have a solution for that," said Harriet.

"Looks like we're going on holiday," Sirius quipped.

Harriet looked at him in surprise.

"What?" he asked. "It's not like I'm not allowed in Britain. The Ministry just rather I'm not there to remind them of their mistake."

"But the Order," Harriet argued.

"What about them?" asked Sirius. "I say it's time we get some payback on them. Do you think we'll have time for pranks?"

Harriet had to laugh. "We'll see."

A few days later they all got on a plane and flew to Scotland. Hedwig was sent ahead to Fred and George to tell them that they were coming. The twins arrived not long after they checked into the hotel they would be staying at until they were ready to make their move on Hogwarts. It was a happy reunion with a few minor pranks thrown about between them as a greeting.

The group began planning their infiltration of Hogwarts. They were going to do it on Halloween, only a couple days away. All the students and faculty would be at the Halloween feast. The four women would create a diversion while Harriet would sneak into the school using the secret passage at Honeydukes. Sirius, Remus, and the twins would be back up if any of them needed it. Geek got in contact with Harriet and told her the boss had something that could help her locate the horcrux. It would be waiting for her outside of Hogsmeade at the edge of the magical border on a stump marked with a circle with an X through it. She would return the item to the same place with the horcrux.

Halloween morning had the four women hurrying around getting ready. Ophelia said since it was Halloween, they should dress up and make an impression. She was wearing a short purple dress with silver harness straps, ankle boots, and a sheer purple cape. She used eye liner and some shadows to paint on a masquerade mask. Ursula did the same with her makeup, but was wearing one of her ornate corsets with a ballroom gown made of black sheer fabric that would billow away and show off her tight black pants with lines of silver glitter wrapping around her legs. She also was wearing multiple chains around her neck and draped over her bare shoulders. Forsythia was wearing a lavender dress with lantern earrings that glowed subtly. Her blonde hair was pulled into a thick braid and stuffed full of flowers that were charmed to stay fresh until the end of the night. Everyone got a laugh when she decided to hold a frying pan in her hands like it was a weapon. A few of them dared her to take it with them to Hogwarts. Margarita was outfitted in a brown fur-trimmed top and had her pants tucked into her boots. She had done her eye makeup in reds and black and had a red cloak to complete her costume. Sirius and Remus made little wolf masks for themselves to go with Margarita's Little Red Riding Hood. Harriet kept with her 90s teen witch look. She wore a shiny leather jacket and a long black dress with a flowing skirt that came to her ankles. Underneath she wore black leggings tucked into her low-heeled boots. Her accessories were a spiked collar, strands of obsidian and amethyst beads, and silver cross earrings. She had her eyes lined thickly in black and painted her lips deep red.

That afternoon they transported themselves close to Hogsmeade, but were still in the non-magical world. The four women, Sirius, and Remus went ahead to meet with the twins while Harriet went to find the marked stump. It didn't take her too long to find it. Laying on the stump with a circle and an X carved in it was a small wooden box on a leather cord with a note.

_This compass does not point north, but to what the holder desires the most. If you want the horcrux, it will point to the horcrux no matter what form it is in. Return the compass with the horcrux and leave._

The letter was signed with the same mark carved into the stump.

Harriet picked up the compass and opened it up. The needle spun around lazily. When she concentrated on wanting the last horcrux, the needle whipped around and pointed in the direction of Hogwarts. A thought then occurred to Harriet. Hogwarts had many floors and the compass did not point up or down. She could be on one floor and the compass could signal she was on top of the horcrux, but in actuality it could be above or below her. If that was the case, Harriet hoped whatever they came up with for the diversion bought her plenty of time. She tucked the compass into the backpack she brought with her and waited.

At sundown, Harriet put on her invisibility cloak and went down to Hogsmeade. Honeydukes was still open when she got there and she was able to slip down to the cellar with relative ease. She took off her cloak once she was inside the passageway and conjured a ball of light so she could see where she was going. At the other end of the passage, Harriet took out the Marauder's Map. Looking it over, she saw almost everyone was in the great hall. Filch was wandering around on the second floor corridor and a few students were still making their way down the feast. The four women were walking up to the castle while Sirius, Remus, and the twins were hanging back until they were needed.

Harriet pushed at the statue of the one-eyed witch and stepped into the corridor. As she did, something touched her magic. It wasn't malicious, just letting her know it was there. She had felt it many times when she was a student. Hogwarts was welcoming her back.

Harriet looked at the compass and focused on wanting the horcrux. Then another thought occurred to her. The compass couldn't direct her to what floor the horcrux was on, but what if she wanted a route to the horcrux?

As soon as she decided she wanted that, the compass needle turned in another direction, pointing towards the main stairs. With the compass in one hand and the Marauder's Map in the other, Harriet ran off in the direction the stairs.

The compass led her up to the seventh floor and the needle was locked on a blank wall. Harriet was confused. Why would the compass lead her here? She focused on wanting the horcrux, but still the compass needle pointed at the wall.

"This can't be right," Harriet said, touching the wall.

She looked down at the Marauder's Map and saw the four women were in the great hall. She wasn't sure how much time she would have.

"There has to be a door here," said Harriet. She sighed. "If there's something here, show me now. I'd rather not blow a hole in this wall."

Nothing happened.

"Great, talking to a wall," she muttered. "Shows how mentally stable I am."

A soft pop had her whirling around, a spell on her lips. Standing ten feet down the corridor was a house-elf dressed in a jumper, mismatched socks, a scarf, and several small knit hats balanced on top of one another.

"Dobby!" cried Harriet.

"Missy Harriet Potter!" wailed the eccentric house-elf. "You came back to Hogwarts! The Great Harriet Potter, you is in danger here! The headmaster searches for you! Asked Dobby if he knew, but Dobby said nothing!"

"Dobby, I need help," Harriet said quickly.

"Anything, miss," said Dobby.

"Voldemort hid something here in Hogwarts," she explained, ignoring Dobby's terrified squeak at his name. "It's something needed to defeat him. I tracked it up here, but I can't get passed this wall."

"It's the Come and Go Room, miss, or else the Room of Requirement," said Dobby. "It is a room that a person can only enter when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs. Dobby has used it, miss."

There was a seriousness in Dobby's voice that had Harriet wanting to ask more questions, but there wasn't time.

"So if I needed something someone else left behind in it, it would appear?" asked Harriet.

Dobby nodded.

"How do I find the door?" she asked.

"You need to walk past this bit of wall three times and concentrate on what you need, miss," answered Dobby. He pointed to the blank part of the wall.

Harriet began to pace along the length of the blank section of wall, concentration on needing the horcrux that was hidden. She had only made a pass and a half before the door sprang into existence.

"I thought you said three, Dobby," Harriet said.

"Hogwarts knows it's urgent, miss," said Dobby. "Whatever you is searching for, Hogwarts knows it's important."

"Thank you, Dobby," said Harriet.

The house-elf beamed before his face fell. "I has to tell the headmaster you is here," he said. "He has ordered anyone who sees to you tell him."

"I understand, Dobby," said Harriet. She looked at the Marauder's Map. Everyone was in the great hall still. "But you can take your time going to tell him, right?"

Dobby's face lit up and he nodded furiously.

"You know, I thought I saw some spilled ink in a fifth floor corridor," she went on conspiringly. "Filch would be mad if it stained the floor and we can't have an angry Filch, can we?"

Dobby grinned, catching on to Harriet's idea. "Missy Harriet Potter is right! Dobby best do it first! The headmaster is busy eating – wouldn't like to bother him!"

"Go," said Harriet.

Instead of popping away, he walked towards the stairs.

Harriet turned the door handle and pushed the door open. The room had cathedral ceilings and was filled with broken and damaged furniture, thousands of books, rusty weapons, hats and cloaks, and other trinkets.

"Of course it couldn't be easy," Harriet muttered.

The compass pointed to a tower of broken furniture. Harriet walked around it, but the compass kept pointing to it.

"Come to mama," said Harriet, raising her hand and trying to summon the horcrux. Nothing happened. "Plan B then."

She put her hands up like she was going to push something and shoved. The tower of furniture toppled over and scattered on the floor. Harriet picked her way around with the compass, checking the Marauder's Map every few steps. The four women were still in the great hall, but Sirius and Remus had joined them. Seeing this, Harriet picked up the pace in her search.

After several minutes of sifting through everything, the compass needle spun violently. Looking down at her feet Harriet saw a tarnished diadem. She could feel sinister magic calling to her, telling her to put the diadem on. Harriet drew back and reached into her backpack. She pulled out a magic-proof sack. Careful not to touch the diadem with her bare hands, she put it in the sack and tied it closed so it didn't fall out in her backpack.

With the last horcrux, Harriet ran out of the Room of Requirement. While running down the sixth floor stairs, she caught movement on the stairs one level below her. A burst of red light came at her. She dove for the floor and the light struck the wall behind her.

"Harriet Potter!" Dumbledore roared.

Harriet took out the Marauder's Map and saw it was only Dumbledore on the stairs. Everyone else was still in the great hall, although their movements were erratic. It was like watching an ant colony moving. She wondered what the women were doing to cause that.

"Harriet!" Dumbledore shouted again.

Harriet saw him coming up the stairs on the map. She put it away and flexed her arms. Bands of green magic wrapped around her wrists. In one hand, she formed a ball of green magic and lobbed it over the stairs. It exploded in a shower of green sparks. Harriet jumped up and launched a spell at the distracted headmaster. Dumbledore was able to deflect her spell in time. Harriet continued to rapid fire non-lethal spells at him as she made her way down the stairs. Dumbledore was having trouble keeping up. He managed to cast a couple spells, but she blocked them with her magic wrist cuffs. Dumbledore put up a shield to protect himself and Harriet's attacks bounced off it.

Harriet decided to take a slightly different approach. She put both her hands together and the magic on her wrists moved up onto her hands. "Break!" she shouted and threw her hands out.

Dumbledore's shield shattered on impact and he was sent sprawling on the stair landing. Taking a page out of Ophelia's book, Harriet waved her hand and sent Dumbledore's wand up to the ceiling.

"No!" Dumbledore yelled, horrified. "What have you done?"

"What do you think?" Harriet snapped back. She continued to approach him with her hands raised, magic curling around her fingers. She didn't know why he was so upset about being disarmed. It wasn't like she snapped his wand. Perhaps it had been a long time since the great Albus Dumbledore had been disarmed and he didn't know how to handle it. Whatever the case may be, Harriet really didn't care.

Dumbledore shuffled back and put on his grandfatherly persona. "Oh, Harriet, look at you. How much you have grown."

"Save it, Dumbledore! Honeyed words aren't going to help you." She stepped onto the stair landing and stood over him.

Dumbledore decided to take a different approach. "Where is your wand, my dear girl?"

"I don't need a crutch," Harriet said.

Dumbledore looked at her in disappointment. "My dear girl, you should not be so arrogant. That is how Tom began. You are turning Dark. Come back to the Light, Harriet."

"You mean come back to you," said Harriet. "Come back to the gilded cage you designed for me. Obey you without question, worship you for the great wizard you believe you are, be your little weapon against Voldemort. You stole from me, tried to trap me in a marriage. What makes you think I'll come running back to you?"

"My dear girl, you must understand," said Dumbledore. "All I do is for the greater good."

Harriet glared at him. "For your greater good and to hell with whoever needs to be sacrificed in the process. But I won't be one of your pawns anymore."

"Harriet, you are the only one who can defeat Voldemort, but you need to be trained," said Dumbledore. "I can help you."

"I don't need your help," said Harriet.

"My dear girl, you need to be guided," Dumbledore said.

Harriet scoffed. "The only thing I need is the horcrux that Voldemort has hidden in Hogwarts."

Dumbledore gasped. "Here? Where is it?"

"I have it," said Harriet.

"Give it to me," Dumbledore demanded.

"No," said Harriet. "You had your chance to find it, to find all of them. You've known for years about them and you did nothing."

"I wasn't sure," Dumbledore tried to defend.

Harriet's magic slammed down on him and forced him flat on his back.

"You knew they existed for certain for two years!" Harriet shouted. "Since Margarita and the others confirmed it! So stop playing dumb! You're just lazy at this point. I bet you wanted me to do all the work for you so all you had to do is sit back and suck lemon drops."

She eased up on her magic to let Dumbledore sit up.

"My dear girl, think about what you are doing," Dumbledore pleaded. "You will doom the Wizarding World if you do not fulfill your destiny."

"I'm cleaning up your mess. Isn't that enough? The horcrux will be destroyed by morning."

"You can't!" yelled Dumbledore.

Harriet glared at him. "Why not? Because it's not part of your plan?"

Dumbledore sputtered. "You do not have the means to destroy it."

"I don't," Harriet admitted. "But I know someone who does. Who do you think took care of the other horcruxes?"

"But the one inside you," started Dumbledore.

"Gone," she said. "And I'm still alive. You were wrong."

Dumbledore's eyes widened in shock. "That's impossible."

"Maybe for you," said Harriet. She stepped around him and started down the stairs backwards, keeping her hands up at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore began to get up. "Wait!" he called desperately. "You don't know where Voldemort is. I can help you defeat him, Harriet."

"I don't need you to find him," Harriet told him.

Dumbledore hurried to his feet and started for her. Harriet flicked her wrists and chains wrapped around his body. He fell back onto the landing.

"No!" yelled Dumbledore, squirming on the floor trying to free himself. "You can't do this! You need me! I am Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore! I am the Leader of the Light! I am the greatest wizard of this age! You need me to guide you! You need me! You are lost without me!"

Even though Harriet was unnerved by Dumbledore unhinged ranting, she didn't let it show as she turned and ran down the stairs to the third floor. She gathered some magic in her hand and it shaped it into a ghostlike bird the size of a Snitch.

"Found it," she told it.

Her magical messenger flew off in the direction of the great hall.

Harriet went back through the passageway and snuck out of Hogsmeade under her invisibility cloak. She didn't take it off again until she reached the marked stump. She placed the horcrux and compass on it, but she didn't leave right away. She didn't want to leave the horcrux out for just anyone to find it and she needed to warn whoever came to retrieve it about the compulsion to wear the diadem. Harriet searched her backpack and found a pen. On the back of the note originally left on the stump, she wrote her note of warning, signed it HP, and tucked the corner under the compass.

Harriet turned and began to walk away. She only took about five steps when a familiar loud buzzing filled her ears and she had a stabbing pain shoot through her skull. When it stopped, Harriet turned and saw everything she left on the stump was gone.

Harriet returned to the hotel to find a party going on in their suite. There was all sorts of candy on the table along with an open bottle of wine. Ophelia and Ursula were dancing around Remus while appropriate Halloween music was playing, the sheer fabric of their costumes swirling around them. Sirius was the first to see her come in and let out a barking laugh as he hugged her. He had her sit down next to the twins and proceeded to regale her with what happened in the great hall with Remus correcting his exaggerated recount.

After the four women had gone into Hogwarts, Sirius had gotten impatient and decided to go in to see if he could help. Remus had followed him to keep him from doing anything stupid. Ophelia had been in the middle of a monologue fit for a movie when the two arrived, calling the Order the Order of the Chickens for their cowardice and saying they could have done something before things with Voldemort had gotten to this point and had instead done nothing. She then had thought it would be a good idea to turn all the students into chickens. The professors hadn't known what to do at that point. If they had helped the students, it left them open to attack by the four women, but they couldn't fight back without potentially hitting a student as they had all been flapping around in a panic. Snape had been the only one to try to attack with a Stunner, but Forsythia had sent it back to him using her frying pan like a tennis racket. He would be waking up with a massive headache later. Dumbledore must have slipped out the back at this time because they didn't see him after that in the great hall. Sirius also added that one of the students, one who had been turned into a white hen with pale silver eyes, had hopped up to Ophelia and demanded to be turned into something else, not back into a human. Ophelia had turned her into a white rabbit instead. Remus asked how Ophelia knew what the student wanted and Ophelia shrugged and said that great minds think alike. The twins were disappointed that they missed out on witnessing the great hall being turned into a chicken coop. Ophelia then preformed an encore, turning Fred and George into roosters.

Harriet filled them in on finding the horcrux and facing Dumbledore and his rant about how she needed him to defeat Voldemort and fulfill her destiny. She breezed over it like it was nothing though Sirius, Remus, and the twins stared at her like she was crazy for taking on Dumbledore.

"What was I supposed to do?" Harriet asked them. "He was in my way."

The four women brushed it off like Harriet did. They were the ones who trained her and hadn't been concerned that she had to fight Dumbledore alone. If anything, they were disappointed that she hadn't done anything more restrain the headmaster.

After stories were swapped, they decided to watch a Halloween movie. Since the twins hadn't seen a movie before, they didn't want to traumatize them. Harriet set up the smart television to play the movie from the laptop she brought along. She chose a movie about three witches being revived by a candle and needing to suck the life out of children to keep them young. Fred and George were both fascinated and insulted at how non-magicals portrayed witches, but they had a good time. After the movie, Harriet logged in to a live video streaming site to watch a group of friends play her favorite asymmetrical horror game. They watched a couple rounds together before the twins decided to leave. Harriet gave them both hugs and said she would keep in touch.

After the twins left, the celebration started to wind down. Margarita and Forsythia went to bed first, followed by Remus. Ophelia, Ursula, and Sirius stayed up with Harriet watching the stream for another hour before heading off to bed themselves. Harriet ended up falling asleep on the sofa and didn't wake up until her phone alarm started going off.

"_Riding hard every shooting star, come to life, open mind, have a laugh at the orthodox!_"

Harriet turned off her alarm and immediately got a message from Nee-san, his peacock picture popping up on her screen. He was clearly upset with her over something, but she couldn't read what he was messaging because he continued to send messages and his coworkers and a few other people she knew in those circles were messaging her right along with him. Pictures of peacocks, sharks, minks wearing crowns, snakes, and chameleons were dancing on her screen. She finally got fed up with it and put her phone on airplane mode so she could read Nee-san's messages in peace.

He messaged that he wasn't sure if he should be impressed or insulted by what she did and that if she needed someone taken care of that he and a few others would have happily done it for her. He added she left quite an impression with the prince, but Nee-san always felt that Harriet was such a tidy person. At least she could have called them for cleanup.

Harriet had no idea what he was talking about. She moved on to the other messages. Everyone else pretty much said the same thing and asking if she was okay in their own strange ways.

Ophelia strode into the room with a twisted smile on her face. "Oh, you need to see this." She turned the television on a news channel.

Early in the morning, someone's severed head was found on a spike at London Bridge. People had thought it was a Halloween decoration as the face didn't look human. When someone had taken a closer look at it, they discovered the head had been real and the face had been subjected to dramatic cosmetic surgery for the person to look snake-like. Also in the news, there was a gruesome discovery in Little Hangleton where almost a dozen people had been found murdered in a house. Police were trying to figure out if the head found at London Bridge belonged to the headless body found in Little Hangleton.

Harriet stared at the television for a long moment before looking at her phone. She now understood what Nee-san and the others were talking about. She turned off airplane mode so she could start sending replies. When she did, a message came through with an unknown number. Opening it up, Harriet let out a small shriek. The picture was of Voldemort's head on a spike at London Bridge, but the picture was taken some time in the middle of the night. There was a watermark on the picture - a circle with an X through it. Below the picture was a two word message.

_Game Over._

Ophelia looked over Harriet's shoulder to see her phone. "Hmm, someone took the saying about cutting off the head of the snake literally. Nice job. I'd like to see him try to come back from that. Do you want breakfast? I'm going to order room service."

"No, thank you," said Harriet, feeling her stomach turn over at the thought of food.

Ophelia sauntered out of the room.

Another message came through, this time from Geek.

_All taken care of. The guys had fun last night._

Harriet understood and messaged Nee-san and the others.

_It wasn't me, but I know who it was. You have your secrets. I have my secrets. And they have their secrets._

They all got the message to let the subject drop, understanding that Harriet may not be able to tell them everything.

The twins sent Harriet a copy of the _Daily Prophet_. The Wizarding World was in an uproar over Voldemort being alive and then defeated again. Fudge was trying to cover himself to not look bad, but people were angry at his denial of Voldemort's return and the smear campaign two years ago of Dumbledore and Harriet. Then there was the fact that non-magicals found the bodies of Voldemort and the Death Eaters and how the Obliviators were trying to Obliviate all the non-magicals involved before too many people knew. Harriet knew that was a futile effort. Reading on, she saw the Wizarding World was awaiting her return. Now that the threat of Voldemort was gone, it was safe for their savior to come out of hiding. Some were calling for her to return to fulfill her duty to the Wizarding World as an Auror. Harriet laughed out loud at that. She was going back to America and there was nothing the British Wizarding World could do about it.

The seven of them flew back to America that evening. Harriet slept most of the time on the plane, feeling free like the first time she left with the four women. Voldemort was gone and there was no coming back for him. Margarita had called a certain club owner in Los Angeles for her and he confirmed Voldemort was in a special place in Hell and he wasn't getting out. On top of that, Harriet had no obligations to the British Wizarding World and nothing to tie her there. It was over.

They had a layover in New York before getting on another plane to take them to Florida. Harriet spent the time on her laptop playing an online trading card game against someone with the username Herculeon. She won the match by a small margin. Herculeon immediately left the chat and Harriet was searching for a new match.

Her search for a new match was interrupted by an email alert. It was from the trading card game site. Harriet opened it up and saw there was a countdown on the email saying the code below needed to be entered into her scanner before midnight. The code was a series of numbers and letters similar to the codes on the trading cards. Harriet looked for more instruction or what the code was for, but the email didn't say. Since she didn't know what it could be for, she gave one of her friends knowledgeable in the game a call.

"Hey, Peyton. Sorry for calling you so late. I just got this weird code in an email and it says to type it into my scanner before midnight."

Harriet jumped as her friend whooped in her ear.

"About time! Type it in and whatever happens, keep your scanner on you at all times. I'll see you in Chaotic!"

Harriet heard him hand up. Could this be the code her friends had told her about? Harriet typed the code into her scanner and the screen went black. She pressed a few buttons, but it wouldn't respond at all.

"Great," she muttered. "Peyton, you better not have made me break my scanner."

"Harriet." Sirius reached over and tapped her on the shoulder. "Our plane is going to be boarding soon, pup."

"Okay." Harriet put her scanner in her pocket and gathered her carry-on. She would worry about her scanner later.

"Happy to be back in America?" Sirius asked her as they walked to their gate.

Ahead of them, Harriet saw Ophelia, Ursula, Margarita, Forsythia, and Remus waiting at the gate. She looked up at Sirius. "You bet I am."

His expression fell a little. "Are you sure you want them to get away with it all?"

"Hmm?"

"What Dumbledore, the Weasleys, and the Dursleys did to you, do you want them to get away with it?" Sirius clarified.

"They'll do themselves in," said Harriet. "I'm sure the neighbors have already found out that the Dursleys aren't the normal, hardworking family they've made themselves out to be since the payments have stopped. As for Dumbledore, Voldemort is dead and gone and it wasn't by his hand or mine. He doesn't get the satisfaction of being right about me being the only one to defeat Voldemort or defeating Voldemort himself. And he can tell the Wizarding World what he likes, but at the end of the day he knows the truth and he can suck on that sour lemon drop for the rest of his life."

"But the money he stole," Sirius went on.

Harriet stopped, causing Sirius to do the same. "What about it? I made it all back and then some helping Ophelia from last year's makeup collection. It's never mattered to me."

"You know the twins are putting aside money to pay you back," he told her. "They feel like they need to for their family's part participating in Dumbledore's plans."

"If they feel like they must, we'll work out some sort of a business deal," said Harriet.

Sirius shook his head and chuckled. "You really don't want revenge, do you?"

"Why would I need revenge?" asked Harriet. "Voldemort is dead, I severed my ties with the British Wizarding World, I have a family and real friends who see me, not the Girl-Who-Lived. And do you know the best part? I'm free."

"You're a better person than I am," Sirius said with a smile.

Harriet shrugged. "I try. Now judging by how Remus is trying to get our attention, I think we need to hurry up and get on the plane."

Sirius looked up to see Remus waving at them frantically to get their attention. They could see plane was beginning to board.

"Harriet! Sirius!" Ursula sang, her voice carrying over noise of everyone else. "Let's go!"

"We're coming!" Sirius yelled, grabbing Harriet's arm and pulling her along as he dashed for the gate.

Harriet laughed as they boarded the plane, happy to be going home.

* * *

**End.**

**I hope this chapter has brought closure. I have been working on this for nearly two weeks and had to put _Quote the Pauper Forevermore_ on hold again. I think I may have written a page. I will most certainly go back to that story now. I'll keep you updated on my profile page under my news heading. Thank you again for reading this story.**


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